VIII. THE AZTEC PERIOD…

VIII. THE AZTEC PERIOD

Outline of the Period -- Revolt of Coyuhuacan -- Nezahualcoyotl on the Throne of Tezcuco -- Conquest of Quauhtitlan, Tultitlan, Xochimilco, and Cuitlahuac -- Conquest of Quauhtitlan -- Destruction of the Records -- Death of Itzcoatl and Accession of Montezuma I. -- New Temples at Mexico -- Defeat of the Chalcas -- Troubles with Tlatelulco -- Conquest of Cohuixco and Mazatlan -- Flood and Six Years' Famine -- Conquest of Miztecapan -- The Aztecs Conquer the Province of Cuetlachtlan and reach the Gulf Coast -- Final Defeat of the Chalcas -- Campaign in Cuextlan -- Birth of Nezahualpilli -- Improvements in Tenochtitlan -- Embassy to Chicomoztoc -- Death of Montezuma I. and Accession of Axayacatl -- Raid in Tehuantepec -- Chimalpopoca succeeds Totoquihuatzin on the Throne of Tlacopan -- Nezahualpilli succeeds Nezahualcoyotl at Tezcuco -- Revolt of Tlatelulco -- Conquest of Matlaltzinco -- Defeat by the Tarascos -- Death of Axayacatl.

[Sidenote: OUTLINE OF AZTEC HISTORY.]

The annals of the Aztec period constitute a record of successive conquests by the allied Tepanec, Acolhua, and Mexican forces, in which the latter play the leading rôle, and by which they became practically masters of the whole country, and were on the point of subjugating even their allies, or of falling before a combination of their foes, when they fell before a foe from across the sea. Besides the frequently recurring campaigns against coveted provinces or revolted chieftains, we have the constant growth of Tenochtitlan and Tezcuco; the construction of causeways, canals, aqueducts, and other public works; the erection of magnificent temples in honor of blood-thirsty gods; and nothing more, save the inhuman sacrifice of countless victims by which this fanatic people celebrated each victory, each coronation of a new king, each dedication of a new temple, strove to avert each impending disaster, rendered thanks for every escape, and feasted their deities for every mark of divine favor. From two sources there is introduced into this record a confusion unequaled in that of all preceding periods. The national prejudices of the original authorities have produced two almost distinct versions of each event, one attributing the leading rôle and all the glory to Tezcuco, the other to Mexico. The other source of confusion is in the successive campaigns against or conquests of the same province, as of Chalco for example. This province, like others, was almost continually in a state of revolt; and there was no king of Mexico who had not to engage in one or more wars against its people. In the aggregate about the same events are attributed to the Chalca wars, but hardly two authorities group these events in the same manner. Some group them in two or three wars, others in many, and as few attempt to give any exact chronology, the resulting complication may easily be understood. To reconcile these differences is impossible; to give in full the statement of all the authorities on each point would amount to printing the whole history of the period three or four times over, and would prove most monotonous to the reader without serving any good purpose; the choice is therefore between an arbitrary grouping of the events in question and the adoption of that given by Brasseur de Bourbourg. As the latter has the claimed advantage of resting on original documents in addition to the Spanish writers, I prefer to follow it. In respect to the difficulty arising from a spirit of rivalry between Mexico and Tezcuco, I shall continue the assumption already made that the two powers entered into the alliance on terms of equality, carefully noting, however, the views of the authorities on both sides respecting all important points.

While Nezahualcoyotl was still residing in Mexico, a desperate attempt was made to retrieve the defeat at Azcapuzalco, by Coyuhuacan, the strongest of the remaining Tepanec provinces. The rulers of this province applied for aid to all the lords in the region, picturing the danger that hung over all from the Aztec power and ambition; but for some reason, probably fear of the new alliance, all refused to take part in the war, and the Tepanecs were left to fight their own battles. They began by robbing and insulting Mexican market-women visiting their city for purposes of trade; afterwards invited the Mexican nobles to a feast and sent them back clad in women's garments; and finally openly declared war. Their strong towns of Coyuhuacan and Atlacohuayan soon fell, however, before the allied armies under Itzcoatl and Montezuma, and the whole south-western section as far as Xochimilco was brought under subjection,[VIII-1] Itzcoatl making a triumphal return into his capital in 1432.

[Sidenote: OCCUPATION OF TEZCUCO.]

It was determined in the following year that Nezahualcoyotl should return to Tezcuco and take possession of his ancestral throne of Acolhuacan. A large army was fitted out for the conquest, but its aid was not required; for the lords that had thus far held out in the capital, realized that their cause was hopeless, fled to Tlascala and in other directions, allowing the king to enter Tezcuco without resistance, where he was gladly received by the people, was publicly crowned by Itzcoatl, and proclaimed a general amnesty, which course soon brought back many even of the rebel lords.[VIII-2] Soon after his return he made a visit to Tlascala, concluding with that power a treaty of alliance, and afterwards ruling in great harmony with all his allies; at least, such is the version of the Abbé Brasseur, and Clavigero speaks of no trouble at that period; but other Spanish writers, although not agreeing among themselves, give a very different version of the events that occurred immediately after the occupation of Tezcuco. According to the statements of Ixtlilxochitl and Veytia,[VIII-3] Itzcoatl soon repented of having allowed Nezahualcoyotl the supreme rank of Chichimecatl Tecuhtli, and made some disparaging remarks about his colleague. Nezahualcoyotl, enraged, announced his intention to march on Mexico within ten days; Itzcoatl, frightened, made excuses, and sent twenty-five virgins as a conciliatory gift, who were returned untouched; a bloody battle ensued, and the Mexican king was obliged to sue for peace, and submit to the payment of a tribute. Ixtlilxochitl even says that the Acolhuas entered Mexico, plundering the city and burning temples. Torquemada[VIII-4] mentions a difficulty between the two monarchs, and Nezahualcoyotl's challenge, but states that Itzcoatl's excuses were accepted and an amicable arrangement effected. Boturini refers the quarrel and challenge to the later reign of Axayacatl. Ortega, Veytia's editor, denies that any difficulties occurred;[VIII-5] and, indeed, the story is not a very reasonable one, which is perhaps Brasseur's reason for ignoring it altogether.

Once seated on the throne of Acolhuacan, Nezahualcoyotl devoted himself zealously to the reconstruction of his kingdom, following for the most part the plan marked out by his grandfather Techotl, and establishing the forms of government that endured to the time of the conquest, and that have been fully described in a preceding volume. Unlike the king of Mexico, and against his advice, he restored to a certain extent the feudal system, and left many of his vassal lords independent in their own domains, instead of appointing royal governors. He was prompted to this course by a sense of justice, and by it his popularity was greatly increased; the plan was very successful; but whether it would have succeeded in later years without the support of the Mexican and Tepanec armies, may perhaps be doubted. Many however, of the strongest, the most troublesome, and especially the frontier provinces, or cities, were placed under the king's sons or friends. Full details of the governmental system introduced by this monarch, of the many councils which he established, are given by the authorities but need not be repeated here. Particular attention was given to science and arts, and to educational institutions, which continued to flourish under his son, and for which Tezcuco was noted at the arrival of the Spaniards. The city was definitely divided into six wards called after the inhabitants of different nationalities, Tlailotlacan, Chimalpanecan, Huitznahuac, Tepanecapan, Culhuacan, and Mexicapan, and was enlarged and embellished in every direction with new palaces, temples, and both public and royal parks and pleasure-grounds.[VIII-6]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF XOCHIMILCO.]

In 1434 the Chichimec-Culhua city of Quauhtitlan was brought under subjection to Mexico, or at least entrusted to governors appointed by Itzcoatl, who made certain troubles among the people in the choice of a ruler an excuse for marching an army into that part of the country. Tultitlan was also conquered, probably in the same expedition.[VIII-7] Xochimilco was now one of the largest cities in Anáhuac, and by reason of its location partially on the lake, and of a deep moat which guarded the land side, was also one of the strongest. Cuitlahuac was even more strongly defended; but both cities were forced to yield to the Mexicans and their allies during this year and the following. Many Tepanecs had taken refuge in these towns after the fall of Azcapuzalco, and their rulers, trusting to their increased force and the strength of their defences, were disposed to regard the Aztecs without fear. Some authors accuse the Xochimilcas of having provoked a war by encroachments; others state that they were formally summoned by Itzcoatl to submit and pay tribute or resort to the lot of battle. They made a brave resistance, but Itzcoatl's forces crossed their moat by filling it with bundles of sticks and brambles, and entered the town, driving the army to the mountains, where they soon surrendered. Authorities differ as to the treatment of the people and the government imposed, as they do in the case of most of the conquered cities; but Xochimilco was certainly made tributary to the Mexican king. The Cuitlahuacs were conquered in a later expedition. The cause of the war, as Tezozomoc tells us, was the refusal to send their young girls to take part in a festival at Mexico. The battle was fought for the most part in canoes, the city was taken, as is said, by a detachment of students under the command of Montezuma, and many prisoners were brought back to be sacrificed in honor of the god of war. According to Tezozomoc and Duran, the people of Xochimilco with those of Coyuhuacan were ordered to furnish material and build a causeway, the first, it is said, which led from Mexico to the mainland. Herrera and Acosta tells us that after the conquest of Cuitlahuac, Nezahualcoyotl, seeing that it was useless to resist the destiny of the Mexicans, voluntarily offered his allegiance to Itzcoatl and retired to the second rank in the alliance. The latter adds that to content the monarch's subjects with such a measure, a sham battle was fought, in which the Acolhua armies pretended to be defeated.[VIII-8]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AFFAIRS IN QUAUHTITLAN.]

An opportunity was soon offered the allied powers to test their strength outside the limits of the valley, where reports of their valor and rapidly growing power had preceded them. The rich city of Quauhnahuac in the south-west, had once, as we have seen, formed an alliance by marriage with the Mexicans, but friendly relations seem to have ceased. In a difficulty between the lords of Quauhnahuac and Xiuhtepec, a neighboring city, about the hand of the former's daughter, the latter called upon the Mexicans for aid, which they were only too ready to grant. The three kings, together with the Tlahuica forces of Cohuatzin, lord of Xiuhtepec, marched against the fated town, entered it after hard fighting, burned its temple, imposed a heavy tribute of cotton, rich cloths, and fine garments, thus taking the first step in their victorious march toward the South Sea.[VIII-9] The re-building and re-peopling of Xaltocan, by colonies of Mexicans, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs, and by a gathering of scattered Otomís, is attributed by the Codex Chimalpopoca to the year 1435. At the same time were laid the foundations of a new temple in honor of Cihuacoatl, and work on the grand temple of Huitzilopochtli, begun long before, was actively prosecuted. So zealous was king Itzcoatl in advancing the glory of his people that he is reported by Sahagun[VIII-10] to have destroyed the ancient records which related the glorious deeds of more ancient peoples. Nothing further is recorded during Itzcoatl's reign save the execution of the death penalty on certain Chichimec families of Quauhtitlan, who refused to participate in some of the religious rites in honor of the Aztec gods, a short campaign against the province of Ecatepec, and a vaguely mentioned renewal of hostilities with Chalco.[VIII-11]

I have already noticed the statements of Acosta and Herrera, that after the conquest of Cuitlahuac Nezahualcoyotl resigned his supremacy in favor of the Mexican king. Other authors, as Tezozomoc, Duran, Gomara, and Sigüenza y Góngora, also imply that from the end of Itzcoatl's reign, the Mexican king was supreme in the alliance; but their statements disagree among themselves, and with previous statements by the same authors to the effect that the Mexican king was supreme monarch at the foundation of the alliance. Although Itzcoatl and his successors, by their valor and desire of conquest, took a leading part in all wars, and were in a sense masters of Anáhuac, there is no sufficient evidence that they ever claimed any superiority in rank over the Acolhua monarch, or that any important difficulties occurred between the two powers until the last years of the Aztec period.[VIII-12] The king died in 1440, recommending the allies above all things to live at peace with each other, ordering work to be continued on the temple of Huitzilopochtli, and making provision for statues of himself and his predecessors on the throne of Mexico. He was succeeded by his nephew, Montezuma Ilhuicamina, or the elder, who was already commander of the armies and high-priest of Huitzilopochtli.[VIII-13]

[Sidenote: REIGN OF MONTEZUMA I.]

His election having been confirmed by the kings of Tezcuco and Tlacopan, Montezuma I. was crowned with something more than the usual ceremonies, both because of his high ecclesiastical position and because he was the first monarch crowned by the Mexicans as a perfectly independent nation. According to several authors this king made an expedition against the Chalcas before his coronation to obtain the necessary prisoners for sacrifice.[VIII-14] From the first days of his reign Montezuma gave great attention to the building of temples in his capital, obtaining many of his workmen from Tlacopan, and his plans from the skilled architects of Tezcuco. He seems to have instituted the custom so extensively practiced in later years, of erecting in Mexico temples in honor of the gods of foreign provinces conquered or about to be conquered, making these gods subordinate to Huitzilopochtli as their worshipers were subject to the Mexicans. Two temples are especially mentioned by the documents which Brasseur follows; one called Huitznahuateocalli, and the other that of Mixcohuatepec. The latter was built to receive the relics of the ancient chief Mixcohuatl,[VIII-15] which had been preserved for centuries in their temple at Cuitlahuac, an object of veneration to all of Toltec descent. A quarrel between Tezozomoc and Acolmiztli, rival lords of that city, afforded a sufficient pretext for sending thither a Mexican army; the temple caught fire, by accident as was claimed, and the lord who had received aid could not refuse Montezuma's request for the now shelterless relics, which were transferred to their new resting-place in Tenochtitlan. This was in 1441.[VIII-16]

The Chalcas whom we have often found fighting, now on the side of the Acolhuas, now on the side of the Tepanecs, but always hating the Mexicans most bitterly, seem to have managed their alliances so shrewdly up to this time, as to have avoided becoming involved in the ruin that at different times had overwhelmed the leading powers of Anáhuac. Since the formation of the new alliance, in which they had no part, their soldiers had fought many skirmishes with the allied forces, but the latter had made no united effort to conquer them. Having become numerous and powerful, the Chalcas now dared, in 1443, to measure their strength against the allies, their chief purpose being to humble Mexico. They provoked hostilities by seizing and putting to death a party of noble young men who were hunting near their frontier. The party included some members of the Mexican royal family, and two sons of Nezahualcoyotl. The dead bodies of the latter were embalmed and made to do service in the palace of Toteotzin, lord of Chalco, as torch-bearers. The effect of such an indignity was immediate, and brought upon the perpetrators the whole strength of the allied kings. The Mexicans and Tepanecs approached by water, the Acolhuas by land; they were met by the Chalca army, and for several weeks the conflict raged fiercely without decisive advantage on either side. Kings Montezuma and Totoquihuatzin commanded in person; Nezahualcoyotl's forces were under his two eldest sons. Another son, Axoquentzin, only about seventeen years old, performed prodigies of valor and turned the tide of victory. Visiting his brothers in camp, he was about to eat with them, when they ridiculed his youth and told him that was no place for a boy who had done no deed of valor. Ashamed and angry, he seized arms and rushed alone against the enemy, taking captive one of their mightiest warriors--their aged lord Toteotzin himself, Ixtlilxochitl says--and creating a panic which caused ultimate defeat. The victory was complete, the Chalca army was scattered, the city taken and made tributary to the central powers, although these people were able subsequently to cause the victors much trouble. Nezahualcoyotl was so angry at the murder of his sons that for once he shared to some extent the bloodthirsty spirit of the Aztecs, and gladly gave up the Chalca captives, among whom was their chief, to the sacrificial block.[VIII-17]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF TLATELULCO.]

The exact status of Tlatelulco under the tri-partite alliance is not clearly recorded; but the inferior position accorded that city had doubtless caused much jealousy and dissatisfaction, which had already produced some trouble, though not open rupture, between the two kings, if we may suppose Quauhtlatohuatzin to have been at this date considered as a king. During Montezuma's absence in the Chalca war, the Tlatelulca chief ventured so far as to engage in plots against the existing state of things; Montezuma, on his return declared war; the people were reduced to submission, their ruler was killed, and Moquihuix, supposed to be in the interests of the Mexicans, was put in his place.[VIII-18] On his return from the Chalca war, and while Montezuma was punishing the treason of the Tlatelulca chief, Nezahualcoyotl was engaged in quelling a revolt in the northern province of Tulancingo, where the rebels had burned some towns and driven out the Acolhua garrisons. The province was now finally conquered and joined to the domain of Acolhuacan under royal governors. Nezahualcoyotl is also said to have founded a new town in this region, and sent colonists from Tezcuco to dwell in it.[VIII-19]

The rich provinces of Cohuixco and Mazatlan, just south of Anáhuac and of the province of Quauhnahuac, at the time the southern limit of Mexican conquest, had long been coveted by the Aztec kings; and in 1448 the desired opportunity presented itself. The Cohuixcas attacked and put to death a large number of traveling merchants from Mexico, provoked to the outrage doubtless by the arbitrary conduct of the latter, who deemed that the great power of their own nation freed them from all obligation to obey the laws of nations which they visited. The murder of the traders was more than a sufficient cause of war to the belligerent allies, and by a campaign concerning which no details are recorded, the two provinces, or at least most of their towns, were conquered and annexed as tributaries to the Aztec domains.[VIII-20] During the following years the Aztecs were called upon to suspend their foreign conquests and to struggle at home against water and snow and frost and drought and famine, foes that well nigh gained the mastery over these hitherto invincible warriors. In 1449 heavy and continuous rains so raised the waters of the lake as to inundate the streets of Tenochtitlan, destroying many buildings and even causing considerable loss of life. The misfortune was bravely met; the genius of Nezahualcoyotl, the engineering skill of the valley, and the whole available laboring force of the three kingdoms were called into requisition to guard against a recurrence of the flood. A dike, stretching from north to south in crescent form, was constructed for a distance of seven or eight miles, separating the waters of the lake into two portions, that on the Mexican side being comparatively independent of the fresh water flowing into the lake in the rainy season. The dike was built by driving a double line of piles, the interior space being filled with stones and earth, the whole over thirty, or, as many authors say, sixty feet wide, and forming a much-frequented promenade. This work may be considered a great triumph of aboriginal engineering, especially when we consider the millions spent by the Spaniards under the best European engineers in protecting the city, hardly more effectually, against similar inundations. The Chalcas seem to have taken advantage of the troubles in Mexico to revolt, but were easily brought into subjection by an army under Montezuma.[VIII-21]

[Sidenote: FAMINE AND PLAGUES.]

The famine and other plagues already alluded to began two years later, and continued for a period of six years.[VIII-22] The authorities do not altogether agree respecting the exact order of the visitations, but severe frosts, a heavy fall of snow, long-continued drought, consequent failure of all crops, famine, and epidemic pestilence are mentioned by all. All the valley and many provinces without its limits were visited by the famine; indeed, Totonacapan, or northern Vera Cruz, is reported to have been the only part of the country that entirely escaped its effects. The suffering and mortality among the lower classes were terrible; the royal granaries were thrown open by order of Nezahualcoyotl and Montezuma, but the supply of maize was soon exhausted, and the fish, reptiles, birds, and insects of the lakes were the only sources of food. Thousands of the poor sold themselves into slavery, some at home, others in foreign provinces, to obtain barely food enough to sustain life. Several Mexican colonies attribute their origin to this period of want. The rulers could not prevent the sale of slaves, but they forbade children to be sold at less rates than four or five hundred ears of corn each, according as they were boys or girls. This national disaster was, of course, attributed to the anger of the gods, and the utmost efforts were made to conciliate their irate divinities by the only efficacious means known, the sacrifice of human victims. But since fighting and conquest had ceased, such victims were exceedingly scarce. Nezahualcoyotl would allow none but prisoners of war to be sacrificed in his dominions, arguing that such forfeited their lives by being defeated, and that it made but little difference to them whether they died on the field of battle or on the sacrificial altar. Moreover, only strong soldiers were believed to be acceptable to the gods in such an emergency; the sickly and famishing plebeians and slaves could not by their worthless lives avert the divine wrath. The result of this difficulty was one of the most extraordinary compacts known in the world's history. It was agreed in a solemn treaty that between the Mexicans, Tepanecs, and Acolhuas in the valley, and the Cholultecs, Tlascaltecs, and Huexotzincas of the eastern plateaux, battles should take place at regular intervals, on battle-grounds set apart for this purpose, between foes equal in number, for the sole purpose of obtaining captives for sacrifice. Such battles were actually fought during the years of famine, and perhaps in later years, although the almost constant wars rendered such a resort rarely necessary. In the last years of the famine Nezahualcoyotl laid the foundations of a great teocalli at Tezcuco, in 1455 the tying-up of the cycle and the renewal of the sacred fire were celebrated, and the following year of 1456 was one of great abundance. The time of want and disaster was at last completed; a period of plenty and prosperity ensued.[VIII-23]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF MIZTECAPAN.]

With returning plenty and prosperity at home, came back the spirit of foreign conquest. The first to fall before the allied forces was the province of Cohuaixtlahuacan, or Upper Miztecapan, lying in the south-west, in what is now Oajaca, and adjoining that of Mazatlan, which had already been added to the Aztec domain. As in the case of the last-mentioned province and of many others, ill-treatment of Mexican traders was the alleged motive of the war. The Miztec king, called Dzawindanda in his own country and Atonaltzin by the Mexicans, had caused many of the traveling merchants to be put to death and had finally forbidden the whole fraternity to trade in or to pass through his territory. There is every reason to believe that this prohibition was merited by the conduct of the Mexicans. At this time, and still more so in later years, the monarchs of Anáhuac made use of their merchants as spies to report upon the wealth and power of different provinces, to ascertain the best methods of attack, and to provoke a quarrel when the conquest had once been determined upon. The province of Miztecapan was a rich field of traffic and was moreover on the route to the rich commercial towns on the southern coast of Anáhuac Ayotlan, where the products of the countries both north and south of the isthmus were offered for sale at the great fairs. The Mexicans attended these fairs in companies which were well armed and were little less than small armies, trusting in their own strength and that of their sovereign, and showing but little respect for the laws of provinces traversed. Atonaltzin was a proud and powerful ruler, and was not at all unwilling to measure his strength against that of the central nations. Montezuma sent an embassy to hear his complaints; Atonaltzin sent back by the same embassy a great quantity of valuable gifts, samples, as he said, of the tribute the Mexicans might expect if they should succeed in conquering his armies in the war which must decide which king was to pay tribute to the other. Montezuma's reply was to march at the head of a large army towards Tilantongo, the capital of Cohuaixtlahuacan. The result was that the allied forces were utterly routed and driven back with great loss to their home. Montezuma had underrated the strength of his adversary and had undertaken the conquest without sufficient preparation.

A few months were now spent in new preparations on both sides for a renewal of the struggle. The Aztecs in some way formed a secret alliance with the lord of Tlachquiauhco, near Tilantongo, who was an enemy to Atonaltzin. The Miztecs on the other hand obtained aid from the Tlascaltecs and Huexotzincas, who before the Aztec alliance had been the leading traders of the country, and who were jealous of the commercial enterprise shown and success achieved by their rivals. The war began with an assault by the Miztec leader and his eastern allies on Tlachquiauhco; but the Mexicans, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs, under Montezuma, inflicted this time as severe a defeat as they had suffered before; Atonaltzin was forced to surrender, and the whole province was annexed to the domain of the victors, as were Tochtepec, Zapotlan, Tototlan, and Chinantla, soon after. The auxiliary army of the Tlascaltecs and Huexotzincas was almost annihilated. The record closes with a romantic episode of Montezuma's love for Atonaltzin's queen; the Miztec king was killed shortly after by his own subjects, not improbably at the instigation of the Aztecs, and the assassins brought his queen with the news of his death to Mexico. A palace was built for her, but she is said to have resisted the Aztec monarch's ardor, and to have remained faithful to her first husband. The conquest of Cozamaloapan and Quauhtochco, also in the Miztec region, followed during the same year and the following, provoked as before by the pretended murder of traveling merchants.[VIII-24]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF CUETLACHTLAN.]

Elated by their success in the south-west, the allied kings next turned their attention toward the south-eastern province of Cuetlachtlan, in what is now central Vera Cruz, lying between the Aztec possessions and the thriving commercial towns of the Xicalancas on the gulf coast in the Goazacoalco region. According to Veytia, Torquemada, and Clavigero, the chiefs of the province, incited by the Tlascaltecs and promised aid by them and the other cities of the eastern plateau, declared or adopted measures to provoke the war. Duran and Tezozomoc, on the contrary, represent the Mexicans as having sent an embassy to the south-eastern provinces, demanding a tribute of rare shells, or even of live shell-fish, and threatening war as an alternative. The ambassadors were to include the Totonac territory in their demands, but were seized and murdered in Cuetlachtlan, their dead bodies being subjected to great indignities, at the instigation of the Tlascaltecs. The army immediately dispatched from the lake cities was one of the strongest which had yet fought for the glory of the Aztec alliance, and numbered among its leaders three Mexican princes, Ahuitzotl, Axayacatl, and Tizoc, who afterwards occupied the throne, and Moquihuix the ruler of Tlatelulco. The alliance of the Olmec province with Tlascala and the other cities seems not to have been known at Mexico when the army began its march, and when it became known excited so much apprehension that orders were sent to the generals in command to fall back and postpone the conflict until further preparations could be made. All were disposed to obey the royal command, save Moquihuix, who bravely announced his purpose to attack and defeat the enemy with his Tlatelulca soldiers unaided. His enthusiasm had an electric effect on the whole army; there was no longer any thought of retreat; the battle was fought in disobedience of orders, near Ahuilizapan, now Orizava; the army of the enemy was defeated; the Aztecs were masters of a broad tract, extending from Anáhuac south-eastward to the sea; and over six thousand captives were brought back to die on the sacrificial block. Duran and Tezozomoc state that the nations of the eastern plateau did not give the aid they had promised, treacherously leaving the province of Cuetlachtlan to its fate; but this is consistent neither with the character nor interests of the Tlascaltecs, and it is more likely that their army shared the defeat. The victors were received at Mexico with the highest honors, the kings, priests, and nobles marching out to meet them; the leaders were rewarded for their bravery with lands and honors, particularly Moquihuix, who received besides the hand of a Mexican princess nearly related to the royal family; and the blood of the six thousand captives furnished an offering most acceptable to the gods at the dedication of a temple that had just been completed.

A revolt of the province of Cuetlachtlan is recorded by Duran and Tezozomoc at a later date not definitely fixed, when the Mexican governor was murdered, the payment of tribute suspended, and the ambassadors sent to ascertain the cause of such suspension, shut up in a tight room and suffocated with burning chile. The Tlascaltecs, as before, offered aid which was not forthcoming; the guilty parties were put to death by order of the Aztec monarchs, and the tributes of the province were doubled.[VIII-25]

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF THE CHALCAS.]

The Chalcas never missed an opportunity for revolt, and did not fail to take advantage of the events which obliged the hated Aztecs to give their whole attention to foreign wars. During the war in Cuetlachtlan, they are said to have defied the Aztec power by refusing certain blocks of stone from their quarries needed for building-purposes in the capital, and also to have seized and imprisoned several Mexicans of high rank. Among the latter was a brother of Montezuma, whom, according to several authorities, they offered to make king of Chalco; he refused to betray his country, but at last, influenced by entreaties and threats, pretended to consent. At his request a high platform was erected for the performance of certain ceremonies designed to fire the hearts of the Chalcas in the new cause; but from its summit the captive prince denounced the treachery of his captors, called upon the Mexicans to avenge him, predicted the defeat and slavery of the people of Chalco, and threw himself headlong to the earth below. The total annihilation of this uncontrollable people was determined upon by the kings of Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan; and a peculiar air of mystery enshrouds the war which followed. During the whole period of preparation, of conflict, and of victory, the people of the capital engaged in solemn processions, chants, prayers, sacrifices, and other rites in honor of the Aztecs who had perished in past Chalca wars. Signal fires blazed on the hills and in the watch-towers; and it is even said that the gods sent an earthquake to warn the Chalcas of their impending doom. The battle raged for a whole day before the fated city and the Aztecs were at last victorious, as they had been in a previous war against the same city. Great numbers of the enemy fell in battle or were put to the sword during the pursuit; the almost deserted town was entered by the Aztec army; surviving Chalcas were scattered in all directions; many took refuge in the cities of the eastern plateau, others perished in the mountains rather than to submit to their hated foe; but enough were finally pardoned by Montezuma and allowed to return to their city to cause not a little trouble in later years.[VIII-26]

Other events recorded as having occurred before 1460 are few in number. The most important was the conquest and annexation to the Tezcucan domain of many towns in the north-eastern provinces of Tziauhcohuac, Atochpan, and Cuextlan, the home of the Huastecs in the Pánuco region on the gulf coast. In this campaign the allied troops were under two of Nezahualcoyotl's sons, and this was the only important addition to the Acolhua possessions since the date of the tri-partite alliance; yet there is no evidence that Nezahualcoyotl expressed or felt any dissatisfaction at the rapid growth of the Mexican domain; he was not ambitious of conquest, and doubtless received his full share of other spoils and of tribute. At about the same time the Mexicans conquered several strong cities on the southern edge of the Cholultec plateau, such as Tepeaca, Quauhtinchan, and Acatzingo, thus threatening the independence of the eastern republics; outrages on traveling merchants were as usual the real or pretended excuse for these conquests. Tenochtitlan and Tlatelulco had now grown so far beyond their original limits as to form really but one city, the boundary line being a narrow and shallow ditch. This ditch was now deepened and widened at the joint expense of the two powers, and formed into a navigable canal. Great improvements were also made, particularly in the market buildings of Tlatelulco, which had now become the commercial headquarters of the whole country north of Tehuantepec. The commercial interests of the empire had been most jealously promoted by the reigning monarchs, and the Aztec merchants had contributed no less than the Aztec armies to the glory and prosperity of their nation.[VIII-27]

[Sidenote: BIRTH OF NEZAHUALPILLI.]

In 1463 Nezahaulcoyotl married a daughter of the king of Tlacopan, obtaining her hand, if we may credit Ixtlilxochitl and Torquemada, in a manner that reflected no credit on his honor. She had been from an early age the wife of Temictzin, a Tlatelulca general, somewhat advanced in years, but the marriage had not yet been consummated on account of her youth. The Acolhua monarch desiring by marriage to leave a legitimate heir to the throne, and becoming enamored of the young Azcaxochitl's charms, sent her husband away to the wars, and managed to have him killed. After her period of mourning was past, the fair Azcaxochitl was made queen of Tezcuco; the nuptial feasts lasted eighty days among great rejoicings of nobles and people; and within a year the queen gave birth to Nezahualpilli, the emperor's only legitimate son and his successor.[VIII-28] The year 1465 is given as the date of the final submission of the Chalcas; that is the surrender and return to the city of the last bands that had since their defeat lived under chieftains of their own choice in the mountains, and kept up some show of hostility to Mexico.[VIII-29] In 1466, the causeway and aqueduct extending from Chapultepec to Mexico, and supplying the capital with pure water through a pipe of burned clay, were completed. This work had been planned by Nezahualcoyotl during his residence at Mexico, and had been commenced by Itzcoatl. Work was continually pushed forward on the grand temple of Huitzilopochtli, and many teocallis were built at this period in each of the three allied capitals. One in Tezcuco is particularly mentioned, which was very richly decorated with gold and precious stones, and was dedicated by Nezahualcoyotl to the invisible god of the universe. This pyramid was completed in 1467, but, according to the Codex Chimalpopoca, fell as soon as finished. It was necessary to rebuild the structure, and that it might be done rapidly, the Tezcucan monarch called upon Montezuma for laborers from his tributary city of Zumpango and other northern towns. The permission was given, but the people of Zumpango refused to send workmen, and raised a revolt, which was, however, quelled by the Acolhua forces in a short campaign.[VIII-30]

[Sidenote: MISSION TO CHICOMOZTOC.]

A remarkable story told by Duran and attributed to the reign of Montezuma I., may be introduced here as well as anywhere, although it is more than doubtful whether it should receive any credit as a historic record. In the midst of the glory acquired by his valor, Montezuma determined to send an armed force to the region of the Seven Caves whence his people came. Though armed they were to bear rich presents, with orders to explore the country and search for the mother of Huitzilopochtli, who if yet alive would be pleased to know of her son's prosperity and glory, and would gladly receive the gifts of his chosen people. The intention was made known to Tlacaeleltzin--a famous prince who seems to be identical with Montezuma before the latter became king, but of whom many wondrous tales are told even after the latter ascended the throne--who gave his approval, but recommended that a peaceful embassy of wise men and sorcerers be sent on this mission. At Coatepec in the region of Tollan, after performing various religious rites, the sixty sorcerers chosen for the expedition were transformed into different animal forms and transported with their treasure to the land of their fathers, to the lake-surrounded hill of Culhuacan. Here they found certain people who spoke their language and to them announced their purpose. The priests of this people remembered well the departure of the Aztec tribes, and were surprised to learn that their original leaders were dead, for their companions left behind were yet alive. The messengers were promised an interview with Coatlicue, mother of their god, and had a most tiresome journey up the sandy hill with their gifts, much to the wonder of the guiding priests, who wondered what they could live upon in their new home to have become so effeminate. At last they found the aged mother of Huitzilopochtli weeping bitterly, and stating that since her son's departure she had neither washed her body and face, combed her hair, nor changed her garments; neither did she propose to attend to her toilet until his return. The old woman expressed, however, considerable interest in the affairs of Mexico, and made known some prophecies of her son about the coming of a strange people to take the land from the Mexicans. The messengers were finally dismissed with presents of fowls, fish, flowers, and clothing, for Montezuma; and, re-adopting their disguises, were brought back in eight days to Coatepec, where they discovered that twenty of their number were missing. These lost members of the company were never heard of more.[VIII-31]

Montezuma died in 1469,[VIII-32] leaving his country in a more flourishing condition than it had ever known, notwithstanding the six years' famine that had occurred during his reign. He left to his people or to his nobles the choice of his successor from among his three grandsons--by his daughter Atotoztli and Tezozomoc, son of Itzcoatl--Tizoc, Axayacatl, and Ahuitzotl, expressing, however, a preference for the second, who was now commander of the Mexican armies. His remains were enclosed in an urn and deposited in the walls of the grand temple now approaching completion, and his wishes were followed in the choice of a successor.[VIII-33]

[Sidenote: RAID IN TEHUANTEPEC.]

Before the coronation of the new monarch could be celebrated with fitting solemnity, and in a manner worthy of his predecessors, victims for sacrifice must be captured in large numbers; and it had now become an established custom for each newly elected king to undertake in person a campaign with the sole object of procuring captives. Axayacatl, in complying with the usage, distinguished himself by the most daring raid yet undertaken by Aztec valor. Passing rapidly southward by mountain routes at the head of a large force, and avoiding the Miztec and Zapotec towns of Oajaca, he suddenly presented himself before the city of Tehuantepec, routed the defending army, drawing them into an ambush by a pretended retreat, entered and pillaged the city, captured the rich commercial city of Guatulco some distance above on the coast, left a strong garrison in each stronghold, and returned to Mexico laden with plunder and with thousands of captives in his train, almost before his departure was known throughout the country. Brasseur tells us that he crossed the isthmus in this campaign, and for the time subjected to Aztec rule the province of Soconusco, even reaching the frontiers of Guatemala; but Torquemada is given as the authority for this statement, and this author implies nothing of the kind, consequently we may doubt it. The sacrifice of captives from distant and strange lands, together with the rich spoils brought back from the south-sea provinces, imparted unusual éclat to the coronation ceremonies; the successful warrior was congratulated by his colleagues at Tezcuco and Tlacopan; and the people felt assured that in Axayacatl they had a monarch worthy of his subjects' admiration.[VIII-34]

During the same year, perhaps, a battle was fought against Huexotzinco and Atlixco on the frontier, in which the three kings took part personally; and it is recorded that in the midst of the conflict Tezcatlipoca appeared to the Aztec armies, cheering them on to victory. On the return of the victors, Axayacatl and Moquihuix of Tlatelulco each erected a new temple to the gods of Huexotzinco to propitiate those divinities in case of the war being resumed, which was foretold by the oracles. The Mexican temple was called Coatlan, and that in Tlatelulco Coaxolotl; the latter was a grander structure than the former and its erection in a spirit of rivalry excited some ill-feeling on the part of the Mexicans, and was not without an influence in fomenting the troubles that broke out between the cities a few years later.[VIII-35] An eclipse of the sun which took place about the time the temples were completed, was thought to portend disaster, and was followed within a period of two years by the death of the Tepanec and Acolhua monarchs. Totoquihuatzin, king of Tlacopan, died in 1470 at an advanced age and after a long and prosperous reign, during which he had gained the respect of his subjects and colleagues, fighting bravely in the wars of the empire and accepting without complaint his small share of the spoils as awarded by the terms of the alliance. He was succeeded by his son Chimalpopoca.[VIII-36]

[Sidenote: DEATH OF NEZAHUALCOYOTL.]

The burning of an immense tract of forest lying to the west of Azcapuzalco toward the Matlaltzinco region, is recorded by one authority as having occurred in 1471;[VIII-37] and in the next year took place the death of Nezahualcoyotl, the king of Acolhuacan, and considered as the greatest and wisest of the Chichimec monarchs. His adventures in early life while deprived of his ancestral throne have cast a glamour of romance about his name; and the fortitude with which he supported his misfortunes, his valor in regaining the Tezcucan throne, and the prominent part taken by him in the wars of the allies, are enthusiastically praised by his biographers. His chief glory, however, depends not on his valor as a warrior, but on his wisdom and justice as a ruler. During his reign his domain had been increased in extent far less than that of Mexico; but he had made the city of Tezcuco the centre of art, science, and all high culture--the Athens of America, as Clavigero expresses it, of which he was the Solon--and his kingdom of Acolhuacan a model of good government. Such was his inflexibility in the administration of justice and enforcement of the laws, that several of his own sons, although much beloved, were put to death for offenses against law and morality. Official corruption met no mercy at his hands, but toward the poor, the aged, and the unfortunate, his kindness was unbounded. He was in the habit of traveling incognito among his subjects, visiting the lower classes, relieving misfortune, and obtaining useful hints for the perfection of his code of laws, in which he took especial pride. Ever the promoter of education and culture, he was himself a man of learning in various branches, and a poet of no mean talent.[VIII-38] His religious views, if correctly reported by the historians, were far in advance of those of his contemporaries or of the Europeans who in the cause of religion overthrew Tezcucan culture; he seems to have been unable to resist the Aztec influence in favor of human sacrifices, but he deserves the credit of having opposed the shedding of blood and ridiculed the deities that demanded it. The only dishonorable action of his life is the method by which he obtained his queen, and that may have received a false coloring at the hands of unfriendly annalists. Some of his poems were afterwards regarded as prophecies, in which was vaguely announced the coming of the Spaniards. He died in 1472, leaving over a hundred children by his concubines, but only one legitimate son.[VIII-39]

Feeling that his death was near, Nezahualcoyotl had assembled his family and announced Nezahualpilli as heir to the throne. He informed his older natural sons that only by leaving the throne to a legitimate successor could he hope to secure a peaceful succession and future prosperity. He expressed great esteem for his oldest son Acapipioltzin, who was now at the head of his armies, and great confidence in his ability, calling upon him to serve as guardian and adviser of Nezahualpilli, at the time only eight years old, during his minority, and to protect his interests against possible attempts of his other brothers to usurp the crown. Acapipioltzin promised to obey his wishes, and was ever after faithful to his promise. Several authors say that the king gave orders that his death should not be announced until after his son was firmly seated on the throne; others state that it was a popular belief among the common people that Nezahualcoyotl had not died, but had been called to a place among the gods. After the funeral of the dead king, at which assisted an immense crowd of nobles, even from foreign and hostile provinces, such as Tlascala, Cholula, Tehuantepec, Pánuco, and Michoacan, three of his sons showed such evident designs of disloyalty to the appointed successor, that the young prince was removed to Mexico by his Aztec and Tepanec colleagues, and the ceremony of coronation was performed there. Axayacatl is said to have spent most of his time in Tezcuco during Nezahualpilli's minority, and it is not improbable that he took advantage of his colleague's youth to strengthen his own position as practically head of the empire.[VIII-40]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF TLATELULCO.]

In the year of Axayacatl's accession three hills trembled in Xuchitepec, that is, there was an earthquake foreboding disaster, which came upon the people in 1472, in the shape of an Aztec army under Axayacatl. During a raid of a few days, the province was ravaged and a crowd of captives brought back to die on the altars of Huitzilopochtli. Such is Torquemada's account, which is interpreted by Brasseur as referring to a raid across the isthmus into the Guatemalan province of Xuchiltepec, or Sochitepeques, but there seems to be very little reason for such an interpretation when we consider that there were two towns named Xuchitepec in the immediate vicinity of Anáhuac.[VIII-41]

[Sidenote: DEATH OF MOQUIHUIX.]

All the authorities relate with very little disagreement that in 1473 Tlatelulco lost her independence, and was annexed to Mexico under a royal governor. Hitherto this city, notwithstanding the troubles during the reign of Montezuma resulting in the death of her king and the elevation of Moquihuix, had been more independent and enjoyed greater privileges than any of the other cities tributary to the Mexican throne. But the Tlatelulcas viewed the rapid advance of Mexican power with much jealousy; they could not forget that for many years their city had been superior to her neighbor; they were proud of their wealth and commercial reputation, and of the well-known valor of their prince Moquihuix. We have seen that there had been considerable dissatisfaction about the building of the temples a few years earlier; and frequent quarrels had taken place in the market-places between the men and women of the two cities. Duran and Tezozomoc relate certain outrages on both sides at the beginning of the final struggle. Moquihuix at last, counting on the well-known hatred and jealousy of the different nations in and about the valley toward the Aztec king, formed a conspiracy to shake off the power of Axayacatl, and invited all the surrounding nations except Tlascala, whose commercial rivalry he feared, to join it. Except Tlacopan, Tezcuco, and Tlascala, nearly all the cities of the central plateaux seem to have promised aid, and the plot began to assume most serious proportions, threatening the overthrow of the allied kings by a still stronger alliance. But, fortunately for his own safety, Axayacatl was made aware of the conspiracy almost at the beginning. It will be remembered that a near relative of his--his sister, as most authorities state--had been given to Moquihuix for a wife in reward for his bravery in the south-eastern campaign. She had been most grossly abused by her husband, and learning in some way his intentions, had revealed the plot to her brother, who was thus enabled to obtain from his allies all needed assistance, and to be on his guard at every point. I shall not attempt to form from the confused narratives of the authorities a detailed account of the battles by which Tlatelulco was conquered. At the beginning of open hostilities the wife of Moquihuix fled to Mexico. A simultaneous attack by all the rebel forces had been planned; but none of the rebel allies actually took part in the struggle, approaching the city only after the battle was over and devoting their whole energy to keep from Axayacatl the knowledge of their complicity. Moquihuix, confident of his ability to defeat the unprepared Mexicans without the aid of his allies, having excited the valor of his chieftains and soldiers by sacrificial and religious rites, giving them to drink the water in which the stone of sacrifice had been washed, began the conflict before the appointed time. For several days the conflict raged, first in one city, then in the other; but at last the Mexicans invaded Tlatelulco, sweeping everything before them. The surviving inhabitants fled to the lake marshes; the remnants of the army were driven in confusion to the market-place; and Moquihuix amid the imprecations of his own people for the rashness that had reduced them to such straits, was at last thrown down the steps of the grand temple, and his heart torn from his breast by the hand of Axayacatl himself. The city was for a time devoted to plunder; then the inhabitants were gathered from their retreats, after having been compelled--as Tezozomoc, Acosta, and Herrera tell us--to croak and cackle like the frogs and birds of the marshes in token of their perfect submission; heavy tributes were imposed, including many special taxes and menial duties of a humiliating nature; and finally the town was made a ward of Tenochtitlan under the rule of a governor appointed by the Mexican king. The re-establishment of peace was followed by the punishment of the conspirators. The Tlatelulca leaders had for the most part perished in the war, but two of them, one being the priest Poyahuitl who had performed the religious rites at the beginning of hostilities, were condemned to death. The same fate overtook all the nobles in other provinces whose share in the conspiracy could be proven. So terrible was the vengeance of Axayacatl and so long the list of its victims, that the lords of Anáhuac were filled with fear, and it was long before they dared again to seek the overthrow of the hated Aztec power.[VIII-42]

A strange anecdote is told respecting the fate of Xihuiltemoc, lord of Xochimilco, who had either taken part in the Tlatelulca war on the rebel side, or more probably had failed to aid the Mexican king in a satisfactory manner. Both Axayacatl and Xihuiltemoc were skilled in the national game of tlachtli, or the ball game, and at the festivals in honor of his victory, the former challenged the latter to a trial of skill. The Xochimilca lord, the better player of the two, was much embarrassed, fearing either to win or to allow himself to be beaten, but the king insisted, and wagered the revenues of the Mexican market and lake for a year, together with the rule of certain towns, against the city of Xochimilco, on the result. Xihuiltemoc won the game, and Axayacatl, much crest-fallen, proclaimed his readiness to pay his wager; but either by his directions, or at least according to his expectation, his opponent was strangled with a wreath of flowers concealing a slip-noose, by the people of the towns he had won, or as some say by the messengers charged to deliver the stakes.[VIII-43]

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF MATLALTZINCO.]

Thus far the Aztec conquests had been directed toward the south-east and south-west, while the fertile valleys of the Matlaltzincas, immediately adjoining Anáhuac on the west, had for some not very clear reason escaped their ambitious views. A very favorable opportunity, however, for conquest in this direction presented itself in 1474, when the Matlaltzincas were on bad terms with the Tarascos of Michoacan, their usual allies, and when the lord of Tenantzinco asked the aid of the Mexicans in a quarrel with Chimaltecuhtli the king. Axayacatl was only too glad to engage in an undertaking of this nature, but, in order to have a more just cause of interference--for, as Duran says, the Aztecs never picked quarrels with other nations!--he peremptorily ordered the Matlaltzincas to furnish certain building-material and a stone font for sacrificial purposes, and on their refusal to comply with his commands, marched against their province at the head of the allied troops, and accompanied, as Torquemada says, by his colleagues. Town after town in the southern part of the province fell before his arms, and were placed under Mexican governors. Such were Xalatlauhco, Atlapolco, Tetenanco, Tepemaxalco, Tlacotempan, Metepec, Tzinacantepec, and Calimaya. Some Aztec colonists were left in each conquered town, and Torquemada tells us that people were taken from the other towns to settle in the first, Xalatlauhco. Tezozomoc relates that the king at one time in this campaign concealed himself in a ditch with eight warriors, and fell upon the rear of the enemy who had been drawn on by a feigned retreat of the Aztecs, causing great panic and slaughter. Flushed with victory, the allies pressed on to attack Xiquipilco in the north, the strongest town in the province, and Toluca, the capital. Xiquipilco is spoken of as an Otomí town under the command of Tlilcuetzpalin, with whom Axayacatl had a personal combat during this battle, being wounded so severely in the thigh that he was lame for life, and narrowly escaped death. Tezozomoc claims that the Otomí chieftain was hidden in a bush and treacherously wounded the Mexican king, who was in advance of his troops; Ixtlilxochitl, ever ready to claim honor for his ancestors, tells us that it was the Acolhua commander who saved Axayacatl's life; while Clavigero and Ortega imply that a duel was arranged between the two leaders. The enemy was defeated, their leader and over eleven thousand of his men were taken captives, and the town surrendered, as did Toluca a little later, and other towns in the vicinity. The news of the conquest was received with great joy at the capital; the senate marched out to meet and receive the victorious army on its return; triumphal arches were erected at frequent intervals, and flowers were strewn in the path of the victors. The captives were sacrificed in honor of the god of war, or as Tezozomoc says, at the dedication of a new altar in his temple, except the brave Tlilcuetzpalin and a few comrades who were reserved to grace by their death another festival, which took place somewhat later. During this Matlaltzinca war a very severe earthquake was experienced.[VIII-44]

A year or two later the Matlaltzincas revolted and obtained the promise of assistance from the Tarascos, who were anxious to measure their strength against that of the far-famed Aztecs. But the Tarasco monarch was unused to the celerity of Mexican tactics, and Axayacatl's army, thirty-two thousand strong, had entered Matlaltzinco, re-captured Xiquipilco and other principal towns, crossed the frontiers of Michoacan, and captured and burned several cities, including Tangimaroa, or Tlaximaloyan, an important and strongly fortified place, before the news of their departure reached Tzintzuntzan, the Tarasco capital. But the Tarasco army, superior to that of the Aztecs, and constantly re-inforced, soon reached the seat of war, attacked the invaders with such fury that they were driven back, with great loss, to Toluca. This was doubtless the disaster indicated by an eclipse during the same year. After thus showing their power by defeating the proud warriors of the valley, the Tarascos did not follow up their advantage, but returned to their own country, leaving the Mexicans still masters of Matlaltzinco. Another attempt at revolt is vaguely recorded some years later, but in 1478 the Matlaltzinca cities were permanently joined to the Mexican domain, and the leading Matlaltzinca divinities transferred to the temples of Tenochtitlan.[VIII-45]

[Sidenote: DEATH OF AXAYACATL.]

Axayacatl died in 1481, just after his return, as Duran informs us, from Chapultepec whither he had gone to inspect his image carved on the cliff by the side of that of Montezuma I. Brasseur states that his days were shortened by the excessive number of his concubines. He was succeeded, according to the wish of his predecessor, by Tizoc, Tizocicatzin, or Chalchiuhtona, his brother, who was succeeded in his office of commander of the army by Ahuitzotl. Duran insists that the throne was again offered to the mythical Tlacaeleltzin, who declined the honor but offered to continue to be the actual ruler during Tizoc's reign.[VIII-46]

FOOTNOTES:

[VIII-1] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. x.; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 222-3; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 18-25; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 194-5; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 486-7; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 145. Duran and Clavigero place these events after Nezahualcoyotl had gone to Tezcuco. The former states that Tezcuco was one of the cities applied to for aid against the Mexicans, and introduces here the story of the people on the lake shore having been made ill by the smell of fish in Tenochtitlan; and the latter states that Huexotla aided Coyuhuacan in this war. Torquemada places the war in the second year of Itzcoatl's reign, and implies that the Mexicans were forced to make several expeditions before they were completely successful.

[VIII-2] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 145-6; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 196-8.

[VIII-3] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 239-40, 407-8; the alliance with Tlascala is spoken of on pp. 247-8. Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 168-82.

[VIII-4] Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 175.

[VIII-5] Boturini, Idea, p. 26; Ortega, in Veytia, tom. iii., p. 178.

[VIII-6] See Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 239-47, 258-61, 386-8, 407-9, 454-5, 467-8; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 182-209, 223-9; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 146-7, 167-9; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 225-6, 242-7; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 197-202. Coatlichan, Tepetlaoztoc, Tepechpan, Chiuhnauhtla, Tulancingo, Quauchinanco, Xicotepec, and Teotihuacan are mentioned among the provinces whose lords were restored. Ixtlilxochitl and Veytia say that the same system of provincial government was forced on Mexico by Nezahualcoyotl.

[VIII-7] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 202-3; Veytia, tom. iii., p. 236; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 150; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 228; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 28.

[VIII-8] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 384, 458, and Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 149-52, 234-5, state that Nezahualcoyotl accomplished the conquest of Xochimilco with the aid of a few Tlascaltecs, leaving Itzcoatl entirely out of the affair. Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 226-7, tells us that the Xochimilcas determined to make war on the Mexicans before they became too strong. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xii., xiii., relates an evil omen for the Xochimilcas, in the transformation of a dish of viands, round which they were seated in deliberation, into arms, legs, hearts, and other human parts. See also Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 203-5; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 25-30; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 268; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 488-90; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 140, 148-9; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 28; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.

[VIII-9] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 248-9, says that Quauhnahuac and eight other towns were awarded to Nezahualcoyotl, Tepozotlan, Huastepec and others to Itzcoatl, besides the share of Tlacopan not specified. The same author gives here without details of chronology, a list of subsequent conquests by the allies at this period, which we shall find scattered throughout this and the following reigns; such are:--Chalco, Itzucan, Tepeaca, Tecalco, Teohuacan, Cohuaixtlahuacan, Hualtepec, Quauhtochco, Atochpan, Tizauhcoac, Tochtepec, Mazahuacan, Tlapacoia, Tlauhcocauhtitlan, and Tulancingo. See also on conquest of Quauhnahuac, Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 227-8; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 149-50; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 235-6; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 28; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 205-7.

[VIII-10] Hist. Gen., tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 139-41; see p. 190, of this volume, and vol. ii., p. 528.

[VIII-11] Codex Chimalp., in Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 208-11; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 150.

[VIII-12] Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 30-2; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xv.; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 303; Sigüenza, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. i., p. 59; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 149-50, denies the story that Nezahualcoyotl submitted to Itzcoatl. Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 33-4, makes them still of equal rank. Tezozomoc makes no mention of any events in Itzcoatl's reign after the conquest of Cuitlahuac. Duran, cap. xiv, states that his conquests included Chalco, Quauhnahuac, Huexotzinco, and Coatlichan. Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 228-9, 232-3; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 157, and Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 236-7, place in Itzcoatl's reign the origin of the troubles with Tlatelulco which will be spoken of hereafter. According to the Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 44, Itzcoatl, or Izcoaci, conquered 24 cities.

[VIII-13] Date, 1440. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xiv-xv.; Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 45; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 150; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 249, 457; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 28; Boturini, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 239; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 211-12. Duran also gives 1445 and Ixtlilxochitl 1441. 1436, Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 237-8; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 229; Bustamante, Mañadas de la Alameda, tom. ii., p. 174. See also on the succession; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 490-3; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 268; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 150, 171; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 30; Motolinia, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 6; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 303.

[VIII-14] Veytia, tom. iii., p. 239; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 491; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 29.

[VIII-15] See pp. 241-2, 250, 255, of this volume.

[VIII-16] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 213-17; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 239-40; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 230; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 150-1; Duran, MS. tom. i., cap. xvi. The latter author is careful to state that Montezuma did not request, but simply ordered aid in building his temples from Tlacopan and Tezcuco.

[VIII-17] Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 240-2; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 150-4; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 230-1; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 255-7, 467-8; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 217-24; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 268; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 29.

[VIII-18] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 156-7; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 232-3; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 242-3; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 224-5; Granados y Galvez, Tardes Amer., p. 176; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 30; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., pp. 273-4.

[VIII-19] Ixtlilxochitl, p. 248; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., p. 225. The former author says that this conquest extended to Quauhchinanco and Xilotepec, but implies that it took place immediately after the treaty with Tlascala, which followed Nezahualcoyotl's accession to the Tezcucan throne.

[VIII-20] The towns mentioned as included in this conquest are Cohuixco, Oztoman, Quetzaltepec, Ixcateopan, Teoxcahualco, Poctepec, Yauhtepec, Yacapichtla, Totolapan, Tlachmalacac, Tlachco, Chilapan, Tomazolapan, Quauhtepec, Ohuapan, Tzompahuacan, and Cozamaloapan. See Veytia, tom. iii., p. 243; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 233; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 157; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 225-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 30; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 249.

[VIII-21] Several authors give the dates as 1446. Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 247-8; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 233-4; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 157-8; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 228-32. This author gives the width of the dike as about 30 feet. Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 30.

[VIII-22] 1448-54, Veytia; 1451-6, Brasseur; 1447-54, _Codex Tell. Rem._; 1404-7 (1444-7?) 11 years after accession of Montezuma, Duran.

[VIII-23] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xviii., xix., xxx., says the snow fell knee-deep in the valley. He also tells us that very many sold as slaves during the famine were ransomed and returned afterwards; this, however, does not apply to such as went to Totonacapan, since these remained in that province. Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 250-1, 257, says that the slaves sold to the Totonacs were all sacrificed to secure a continuance of productiveness in the province. This author also names Xicotencatl, a Tlascaltec noble, as the person who suggested the battles for captives. Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 232-6, implies that the name Totonacapan, 'region of our subsistence,' was given on account of the events described, although the same author has spoken frequently of the Totonacs at a period many centuries earlier. See also, Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix, pp. 63-6; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 158, 171; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 233-5; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 269; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 248-9; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 150. Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 493, and Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii, merely state that it was agreed to reserve Tlascala as a battle-field whereon to exercise the armies, and to obtain captives. Torquemada throws some doubt on this agreement.

[VIII-24] Date, 1458-9, according to Brasseur; 1456 according to the other authors. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxii., xxiii., and Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 51-3, say nothing of the aid rendered by the Tlascaltecs and Huexotzincas. See also Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 236-7; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 249-51; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 237-52; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 159-61; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 30-1.

[VIII-25] According to Veytia's chronology, this conquest took place in 1457; Brasseur puts this and the following events in 1458-9. See Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 251-3; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 467; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 237-8; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 161-2; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 31; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 252-7; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxi., xxiv.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 48-51, 53-6.

[VIII-26] On the conquest of Chalco, see Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xvi., xvii.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 33-40; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 238-40; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 258-61; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 492-3; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 253-4.

[VIII-27] According to the Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 150-1, the conquest of Goazacoalco took place about this time, in 1461. Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 249-50, implies that the Tlascaltecs fought on the side of Nezahualcoyotl in the conquest of Cuextlan. See Veytia, tom. iii., p. 254; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 493; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 240; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 164; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 261-2, 267-9; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 40-6; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 32; on the commerce of the Aztecs, see vol. ii., pp. 378-99.

[VIII-28] Clavigero, tom. i., p. 232, states that the Tepanec princess was the emperor's second wife; and Ixtlilxochitl implies that Nezahualpilli was her second son. There is also no agreement respecting her name or that of her father and husband. All agree that this child was born in 1464 or 1465. See Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 253-4, 257, 467; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 244-6; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 271-3; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 154-6; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 29-30.

[VIII-29] Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 151; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., p. 277.

[VIII-30] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 277-80; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 257.

[VIII-31] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxvii.

[VIII-32] 1464, Veytia; 1468, Vetancvrt, Ixtlilxochitl, and Boturini; 1469, Ixtlilxochitl, Brasseur, Codex Chimalp., Codex Tell. Rem., Codex Mendoza.

[VIII-33] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxviii-xxix., xxxi-ii., and Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 58-63, 66, attribute to Montezuma I. the conquest of Oajaca, and the establishment there of a Mexican colony. They may refer to the conquest of the land of the Miztecs already related, or to that of more southern parts of Oajaca at a later period. They also state that Axayacatl was the son of Montezuma. Duran tells us that Montezuma before his death had his image sculptured on the cliff at Chapultepec; and that Axayacatl was nominated king by Tlacaeleltzin, who declined the throne. The Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 45-6, followed by Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 150, give the number of provinces conquered by Montezuma as thirty-three. Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 257, 457, says Montezuma left several sons. Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 169, 172, says he left one, not named, but that he disinherited him for the good of the nation. Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 493, 495, and Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii., make Tizoc precede Axayacatl, both being sons of Montezuma. Camargo, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcviii., p. 178, makes Ahuitzotl precede Axayacatl. Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 32, says that Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl were sons of Montezuma's uncle by a daughter of Itzcoatl. Motolinia, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 6, and Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 303, represent Montezuma as having been succeeded by his daughter. See also on the death and character of Montezuma I., and the accession of Axayacatl:--Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 280-2; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 241; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 254-5; Boturini, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 240; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 149, 151; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., pp. 268-9.

[VIII-34] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxxii., says that the first five years of Axayacatl's reign were undisturbed by war. See on the Tehuantepec raid and the Coronation: Torquemada, tom. i., p. 172; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 283-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 32; Clavigero, tom., i. pp. 241-2; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 496-7. Veytia, tom. iii., p. 256, and Clavigero speak of wars in the first years of his reign against the revolting provinces of Cuetlachtlan and Tochtepec.

[VIII-35] Date according to the Spanish writers, 1468. According to the Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 150, Huexotzinco had seized upon the province of Atlixco in 1456, driving away the people of Guacachula, the former possessors. Only Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 172-3, and Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 287-8, mention the apparition of Tezcatlipoca. See also Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 242, 248; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 256-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 32-3.

[VIII-36] Date 1469 according to Spanish writers; 1470 according to Codex Chimalpopoca. Veytia, tom. iii., p. 261; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., p. 288; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 242; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 173; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 32.

[VIII-37] Codex Chimalp., in Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., p. 288.

[VIII-38] See vol. ii., pp. 246-7, 294, 471-2, 491-7.

[VIII-39] Date 1470, Ortega and Clavigero; 1462 or 1472, Ixtlilxochitl; 1472, Codex Chimalpopoca.

[VIII-40] On the character and death of Nezahualcoyotl, and the succession of Nezahualpilli, see: Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 254-62, 408-9, 467-8; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 156, 164-9, 173-4; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 232, 242-8; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 288-301; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 33-4; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 247, 261-7.

[VIII-41] Torquemada, tom. i., p. 176. The author says, however, that the province was 'on the coast of Anáhuac.' Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 301-2.

[VIII-42] Authorities on the Tlatelulca war:--Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxxii-xxxiv.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 66-76; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 176-80; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., pp. 269, 274; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 256-61; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 302-15; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 248-52; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 34-5; Granados y Galvez, Tardes Amer., pp. 176-8; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 150; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 498; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiv.; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 262-3; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 120.

[VIII-43] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 180-1; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 263-4, 458; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 35; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 316-17.

[VIII-44] According to the Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 151, this war and earthquake took place in 1462. Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 181-2, places them in the sixth year of Axayacatl's reign. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxxv.-xxxvi., and Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 76-82, state that Tlilcuetzpalin escaped. See also, Ixtlilxochitl, p. 264; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 252-3; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 317-22; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 267-8; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. xviii.; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 35.

[VIII-45] Most of the details of this war are from Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 322-5. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxxvii.-viii., and Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 82-7, state simply that to procure victims for the dedication of a new sacrificial stone, the Aztecs marched to the borders of Michoacan and were defeated by superior numbers, returning to Mexico. The victims were finally obtained at Tliliuquitepec. Other authors represent the Aztecs as victorious, they having added to their possessions Tochpan, Tototlan, Tlaximaloyan, Ocuillan, and Malacatepec. See Torquemada, tom. i., p. 182; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 253; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 35-6; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 151.

[VIII-46] Clavigero, tom. i., p. 253, gives the date 1477. According to the Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 47, it was 1482. All the other authorities agree on 1481. See on family, character, and death of Axayacatl, and succession of Tizoc: Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 269-71; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xxxviii-ix.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 88-91, 143; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 264-5; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 182; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 36; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 494-5; Sigüenza, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. i., p. 70; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 164.

IX. THE AZTEC PERIOD--CONCLUDED

Reign of Tizoc -- Nezahualpilli defeats the Huexotzincas -- Ahuitzotl, King of Mexico -- Campaigns for Captives -- Dedication of Huitzilopochtli's Temple -- Seventy Thousand Victims -- Totoquihuatzin II., King of Tlacopan -- Mexican Conquests -- Conquest of Totonacapan -- Aztec Reverses -- Successful Revolt of Tehuantepec and Zapotecapan -- Conquest of Zacatollan -- Anecdotes of Nezahualpilli -- New Aqueduct, and Inundation of Mexico -- Montezuma II. on the Throne -- Condition of the Empire -- Montezuma's Policy -- Unsuccessful Invasion of Tlascala -- Famine -- Conquest of Miztecapan -- Tying-up of the Cycle in 1507 -- Omens of coming Disaster -- The Spaniards on the Coast of Central America -- Trouble between Mexico and Tezcuco -- Retirement and Death of Nezahualpilli -- Cacama, King of Acolhuacan -- Revolt of Ixtlilxochitl -- Final Campaigns of the Aztecs -- The Spaniards on the Gulf Coast -- Arrival of Hernan Cortés.

[Sidenote: REIGN OF TIZOC.]

Tizoc's coronation was preceded by a campaign in the north-east, where the provinces stretching from Meztitlan to the gulf had taken advantage of the Tlatelulca and Matlaltzinca wars to shake off the yoke of their conquerors. Tezozomoc and Duran represent this campaign as having been undertaken by Tizoc, after most extensive preparations, for the purpose of obtaining captives, but attended with little success, only about forty prisoners having been secured. The former author tells us that this war took place during Nezahualcoyotl's reign. Acosta implies that the failure resulted from Tizoc's cowardice or bad generalship. Ixtlilxochitl, followed by Brasseur, makes Nezahualpilli the leader in this his first war, accompanied by both his colleagues. He seems to have felt, notwithstanding his extreme youth, much shame at not having performed any glorious deed of arms, ruling as he did over so valorous a people as the Acolhuas, and even to have been ridiculed on the subject by his elder brothers; but in this war he made for himself a lasting reputation worthy of his ancestors and his rank. The war is represented by these authors as a succession of victories by which Cuextlan and the surrounding provinces were brought back to their allegiance. No reverses are alluded to. The captives taken were sacrificed at Tizoc's coronation, the new king attempting to surpass his predecessors by giving a series of magnificent festivals which continued for forty days.[IX-1] An expedition against Tlacotepec, mentioned by Torquemada without details, seems to be the only other war in which Tizoc engaged during his reign.[IX-2] He either lacked the valor and skill in war which distinguished his predecessors, or like the Tezcucan monarchs believed he could best promote his nation's welfare by attention to peaceful arts. Very little is recorded of this king; his reign was very short, and was marked by no very important events. During this period, however, occurred a war between Nezahualpilli and Huehuetzin, the lord of Huexotzinco. This war seems to have been caused by the plots of Nezahualpilli's brothers who had obtained the aid of Huexotzinco. According to Brasseur the Acolhua king and Huehuetzin were born in the same day and hour, and the astrologers had predicted that the former would one day be conquered by the latter, whose defeat would, however, be celebrated by the Acolhuas. Huehuetzin ascertained from the malcontent Acolhua princes a statement of the forces that were to march against him, with a description of Nezahualpilli's armor, and directed all his men to make it their chief object to kill the king. But Nezahualpilli learned the intention of his opponent, clad a captain with his armor, placed him at the head of one division of his army, while he himself in disguise took command of the other division. So furious was the attack upon the mock king that he was killed, his soldiers driven back, and the Huexotzincas elated with victory; but in the meantime the main body of the Tezcucan army came up and attacked the foe as they were chanting their song of victory. The real Nezahualpilli killed Huehuetzin in personal combat, after receiving a serious wound in the foot; the Huexotzincas were utterly routed and their city was sacked, the Acolhua king returning to his capital laden with honors and spoils. At his return to Tezcuco Nezahualpilli enclosed an area of land equal to the space that had separated him from his army during the battle, or, as some say, equal to that occupied by the Huexotzinca army, erecting within the enclosure a grand palace with magnificent gardens and immense granaries. He also completed the temple of Huitzilopochtli commenced by his father, and sacrificed at its dedication the captives brought from the last war; for although he is said to have inherited to some extent his father's repugnance to human sacrifice, he certainly consented to such sacrifices on several occasions. Tizoc also completed in 1483 the grand temple of Huitzilopochtli at Mexico, on which his predecessors had expended so much labor.[IX-3] The Mexican king, however, died in 1486, after a reign of six years. His death is reported to have occurred from the effects of poison, or, as the records have it, of magic spells, administered by certain sorceresses at the command of Techotl, lord of Iztapalapan, with the connivance of Maxtla, lord of Tlachco, probably from motives of personal spite. Some authors, as Duran, Acosta, and Herrera, assert that he was poisoned by his own subjects, who were disgusted with his cowardice and inferiority to his predecessors; but his former position as commander of the Mexican armies is opposed to the charge of cowardice, as is the indignation of the people at his murder and the summary execution of all connected with the crime.[IX-4]

[Sidenote: ACCESSION OF AHUITZOTL.]

Ahuitzotl, the last of the three brothers, was now called to the throne, the famous Tlacaeleltzin still refusing the crown, if we may credit Duran and Tezozomoc. During the first year of the new king's reign successful campaigns are vaguely recorded against the Mazahua region adjoining the city of Xiquipilco, against the towns of the Tziuhcoacas and Tochpanecas, subject to the kingdom of Jalisco, against the south-eastern provinces of the Miztecs and Zapotecs, and even against the Chiapanec frontiers, while Nezahualpilli in the meantime conquered Nauhtlan on the gulf coast. No details of these campaigns are given save that the fortress of Huaxyacac, in Oajaca, since known as Monte Alban,[IX-5] was built and garrisoned by the Aztecs; but the object of these wars was to procure captives for the coronation of Ahuitzotl and for the dedication of the grand temple of Huitzilopochtli, which took place in 1486 or 1487.[IX-6] This dedication was witnessed by millions of visitors, including representatives from all parts of the country, from hostile as well as friendly provinces, the former being given the best positions to view the festivities, and being loaded with rich presents at their departure. The chief feature of the exercises was the sacrifice of captives, of whom from seventy to eighty thousand perished on the altar. The victims were arranged in two lines, stretching from the temple far out on the causeways; the kings began the bloody work with their own hands, and the priests followed, each continuing the slaughter until exhausted, when another took his place. This was the most extensive sacrifice that ever took place in Anáhuac, and it was followed by others on a somewhat smaller scale in the lesser cities, among which one at Xalatlauhco in the Matlaltzinca region is particularly mentioned.[IX-7]

[Sidenote: AHUITZOTL'S CONQUESTS.]

The campaign against the frontiers of Chiapas, during which some strongholds were taken by the Mexicans, as Chinantla and Cinacantlan, but which was altogether unsuccessful in the conquest of the Chiapanecs, is placed by Brasseur in 1488, the year after the dedication of the temple.[IX-8] In 1489 Chimalpopoca, king of Tlacopan, made a brilliant campaign against Cuextlan, although leaving many slain on the battle-field of Huexotla; but he died soon after his return, and was succeeded by his son Totoquihuatzin II. Earthquakes and the appearance of phantoms in the air had indicated approaching disasters. Sahagun also mentions an eclipse about this time.[IX-9] In the same year the allied troops conquered the southern provinces of Cozcaquauhtenanco, Quapilollan, Quauhpanco, and Quetzalcuitlapillan according to the Spanish authors, although Brasseur makes that place retain its independence down to the coming of the Spaniards. In 1490 Quauhtla, one of the strongest towns of Cuextlan on the gulf coast, was taken, giving Montezuma, afterwards king, an opportunity to display his valor and form a reputation, which he sustained in an engagement with the Huexotzincas a little later. A battle at Xonacatepec also against the Huexotzincas, aided by the forces of Totolpanco, is attributed to the same year. The captives obtained in these battles were sacrificed at the dedication of the temple of Tlacatecco, and during the ceremonies another temple in the ward called Tlillan was discovered to be on fire, and burned to the ground. The conflagration was popularly regarded as a visitation from the gods, and excited much superstitious fear.[IX-10]

Next in the catalogue of Aztec expeditions against revolting provinces was that in 1491, against the Huastecs of the north-east, who were this time assisted by the Totonacs. Something has been said of this ancient people in a preceding chapter on the pre-Toltec period. Of their history since they left, as their traditions claim, the central plateaux for the region of Zacatlan, and afterward for the gulf coast, nothing is recorded save some troubles with the Teo-Chichimecs on the first appearance of that people, a subsequent alliance with them, and a list of eight Totonac kings given by Torquemada. Their home was now the coast region of central and northern Vera Cruz, where, divided into thirty seigniories tributary to their monarch, and allied with the Tlascaltecs, they had thus far escaped the power, if not the attention, of the Aztecs. But in an evil hour they consented to help the revolting Huastecs on their northern frontier. Glad of an excuse to annex to his empire the fertile lands and flourishing towns of the Totonac coast, Ahuitzotl marched through Cuextlan, easily reducing the rebel chiefs to submission, and then directed his course southward, taking town after town until the whole province in terror gave up all hope of resistance and became subjects of the Aztec monarchs, paying tribute regularly down to the coming of the Spaniards, who landed and began their march towards Mexico in Totonac territory.[IX-11] On his return from the north-east, the south-western provinces demanded the warlike king's attention. The usual murder of traders had taken place, and the lords, as one author tells us, had refused to attend the dedication of Huitzilopochtli's temple at the capital. Oztoman was the centre of the revolting district, and with the neighboring cities of Teloloapan and Alahuiztlan was taken by assault. The inhabitants of the three towns, except the captives taken for sacrifice and the thousands massacred in the assault, were mostly brought to the valley and distributed among the towns about the lake; while the conquered districts were given to Aztec colonies, composed of poor families selected from Mexico, Tlacopan, and Tezcuco, under the command of the warriors who had distinguished themselves in the war.[IX-12]

[Sidenote: REVERSES TO AZTEC ARMS.]

A series of reverses to Aztec arms has next to be recorded. In 1494, as Ixtlilxochitl states, in a battle at Atlixco, Tlacahuepatzin, a son of the former king Axayacatl, was taken prisoner and sacrificed to Camaxtli the war god of the eastern plateau. The following year the Acolhua army was defeated in a battle at Tliltepec.[IX-13] But the most important events of these and the following years were the campaigns in Miztecapan, Zapotecapan, and Tehuantepec. Under the Zapotec king Cociyoeza a general revolt of all these provinces took place, accompanied by a suspension of tribute and a general plunder and murder of Aztec merchants throughout the whole country. At this time probably took place the exploit of the Tlatelulca merchants recorded by Sahagun.[IX-14] Traveling in a large company through the southern regions, they were at Quauhtenanco in Miztecapan when the persecution against their class began. As the only means of saving their lives and property, by a bold move they took possession of the town, which had unusual facilities for defence, seizing the lord and prominent men of the city, and holding them as hostages for the good conduct of the inhabitants. Here they maintained their position against all attacks during a period of four years, and even were able by occasional sorties to capture many officers and soldiers from the armies sent against them, whom they kept and fattened for the altars of their god at home. Their valor won great honors for themselves and for their class after their return to Mexico. Meanwhile all the territory and towns previously conquered by the Aztecs in Tehuantepec were retaken; most of the Mexican garrisons in the country of the Zapotecs and Miztecs farther north were forced to surrender; and besides the merchant garrison of Quauhtenanco, and the strong fortresses of Huaxyacac and Teotitlan near where the capital city of Oajaca now stands, the Aztec power was completely overthrown. Other wars nearer home, which have been alluded to above, at the time that they heard of these events, claimed the attention of the allied monarchs to such an extent that they could not direct their united force against the rebellious provinces; but soon an army of sixty thousand men, under the command of an able officer, was dispatched southward to quell the revolt and to capture Cociyoeza dead or alive. This army seems to have carried all before it in its march through the upper Zapotec regions; but no details are recorded, except that they took the sacred city of Mitla in their course, and sent her priests to die on the altars of Huitzilopochtli.[IX-15]

[Sidenote: DEFEAT IN TEHUANTEPEC.]

The march of the Aztec general was directed towards Tehuantepec, and near that city on a series of ravine-guarded plateaux the Zapotec king and his allies had fortified an immense area supposed to be sufficient to support his army by cultivation, and awaited the approach of the invaders. The ruins of Guiengola[IX-16] are supposed to be the remains of this extensive system of defensive works. Burgoa even claims that the king went so far as to form artificial ponds and to stock them with fish as a further provision against future want. The wily monarch seems to have purposely refrained from making any effort to defeat the Aztecs on their march through the upper country, simply giving orders to such chieftains as remained to guard their homes, to harass the enemy continually, and reduce their numbers as much as possible without bringing on a general engagement. As soon as the invaders, wearied with their long march and constant skirmishing, had entered the labyrinth of ravines through which lay their road to Tehuantepec, the brave defenders rushed down from their mountain forts, and in a series of bloody battles almost annihilated the invading force. The Aztecs could neither retreat nor advance, and day by day the leader saw his army melting away, by death and capture, prisoners being put to death by torture, except a few that were sent back to tell their comrades of the strength and ferocity of their foes. When the situation became known in Mexico, Ahuitzotl is said to have sent a second army larger than the first to relieve the blockaded force; and this re-inforcing movement was repeated three times within a year, but the Aztecs could not force the passage of Guiengola, or if allowed to pass could only comfort their brothers in arms by dying with them. The allied Aztec monarchs were at last fairly defeated, and sent an embassy with propositions of peace and alliance, professing great admiration for Cociyoeza's valor and genius.[IX-17]

Such is the version given by Burgoa. Nothing is known of the negotiations which ensued, but Brasseur deduces from subsequent events that by the terms of the treaty formed, the Zapotec king was to retain possession of Tehuantepec; Soconusco was to be given up to Mexico; free passage was to be accorded to Mexican travelers, and the fortress of Huaxyacac was to remain in the hands of the Aztecs. It is also stated by Burgoa that Cociyoeza was to marry a Mexican princess. These conditions would indicate that the condition of affairs was not after all so desperate for the Aztecs in the south as the preceding account implies. Nothing is said of the fate of the Miztec provinces according to the terms of the treaty;[IX-18] but we know that after the ratification of the alliance, the merchant garrison of Quauhtenanco was relieved from its state of siege, and with the aid of re-inforcements, conquered the whole adjoining province of Ayotlan on the South Sea, and then returned to their homes, where they were received with the highest honors at the hands of the monarchs and of the people, who greeted them with festivities, the details of which are given by Sahagun.[IX-19]

[Sidenote: MARRIAGE OF PELAXILLA.]

It seems not to have been stipulated which one of the Mexican princesses should be given to the Zapotec king; and a strange version is given of the manner in which this matter was settled. Cociyoeza was bathing one evening in one of the miniature lakes connected with his royal gardens. After he had removed his clothing, a beautiful female form appeared by his side in the moonlight, and announced herself as the sister of Montezuma of Mexico, who had heard of his valor, and had caused herself to be miraculously transported to his side by the magic arts of the Aztec enchanters. She assisted him in his bath, left with him the bathing utensils of her brother which she had brought, showed a peculiar mark on the palm of her hand, by which she might be identified, and disappeared as mysteriously as she had come. Cociyoeza had before looked forward to his marriage with some misgivings, but now, violently enamored with the charms of his nocturnal visitor, he made haste to send an embassy with the richest gifts his kingdom could afford to bring back his Aztec bride. A grand display was made in Mexico at the reception of this embassy, doubtless intended to impress upon its members an idea of Mexican power and wealth. The Zapotec nobles were brought into the presence of the assembled court beauties, and noticed that one princess had frequent occasion to arrange her tresses in such a manner as to show her palm and its peculiar mark. They were thus enabled at once to select the fair sister of Montezuma, Pelaxilla, or Cotton-Flake, who was borne in a litter on the shoulders of noblemen with great pomp to the court of Teotzapotlan the Zapotec capital, where a succession of brilliant fêtes were given in her honor; and soon after the nuptial ceremonies were performed at Tehuantepec amid great popular rejoicings.[IX-20]

It was, perhaps, not without hidden motives of future treachery that Ahuitzotl had insisted on a matrimonial alliance between the Aztecs and Zapotecs; at any rate, he is reported to have made an attempt some years later to assassinate Cociyoeza through the assistance of his wife. Ambassadors were sent to communicate with her on this matter, but Pelaxilla revealed the plot to her husband, who immediately sent back the embassy laden with gifts, and prepared his forts and his armies for war. The Aztecs, however, knowing that their plot was discovered, made no attack; they demanded permission to send troops through Zapotec territory for the conquest of Amaxtlan and Xuchiltepec, south of the isthmus, which was granted; but Cociyoeza, suspecting treachery, took the precaution to furnish a large army to attend the Aztecs through his territory, both coming and going, under pretense of furnishing an escort. Ahuitzotl's forces seem to have been successful, although no particulars are recorded.[IX-21]

The events related bring the history of the Aztec empire down to the year 1497, and about the same time the province of Zacatollan on the Pacific, south-west of Michoacan, was annexed to the domain of Tezcuco--a fact which does not seem to agree with any version of the terms of the tri-partite alliance--by the exploit of an Acolhuan officer named Teuhchimaltzin. It seems that some efforts had already been made by Nezahualpilli's orders for the conquest of this province, but without success, when Teuhchimaltzin, stimulated perhaps by the achievements of the Tlatelulca merchants at Quauhtenanco, obtained permission to enter the country disguised as a merchant, with a few companions, promising to subdue the province by taking the king, dead or alive. He was, however, soon recognized and captured, and the day was appointed for his sacrifice; but while the king Yopicatl Atonal with his nobles was drinking and dancing on the night before the sacrificial festivities, Teuhchimaltzin escaped from his prison, joined the dancers, and at last, when all were overcome with frequent libations, cut off the king's head and escaped with it to the frontier where an army seems to have been in waiting. When the nobles awoke and found what had taken place, they forthwith dispatched an embassy after the escaped prisoner, and for some reason that Ixtlilxochitl does not make very clear, offered to surrender the province to the Tezcucan monarch. Thus Zacatollan was added to Nezahualpilli's possessions, Teuhchimaltzin was honored as a hero, and an addition was made to the stock of tales by which sober Tezcucans were wont to illustrate the evils of intemperance.[IX-22]

[Sidenote: PUNISHMENT OF CHALCHIUHNENETZIN.]

In 1498 took place in Tezcuco the public execution of one of Nezahualpilli's wives. This monarch had a great many wives and concubines--more than two thousand, if we may believe Ixtlilxochitl, his descendant. Among the former were three nieces of Tizoc, one of them a daughter of Axayacatl, and a sister of Montezuma II., and very likely all three sisters, although there is great confusion on this point. Axayacatl's daughter was named Chalchiuhnenetzin; she was very young, and was assigned a secluded palace while awaiting the consummation of the marriage. She soon showed an extraordinary fondness for decorating her apartments with richly decked statues, the king noticing new ones at each visit; she said they were her gods, and her future husband was willing to humor her tastes, strange though they appeared. But one day he noticed a noble of the court wearing a ring that he had seen in the hands of Chalchiuhnenetzin, and the following night went to visit her. The maids in waiting said she had retired and was sleeping, but he insisted on seeing her, and found her couch occupied by a sort of puppet counterfeit of herself. His suspicions now fully roused, he ordered all the attendants arrested, pushed his search farther, and at last found his virgin bride dancing in very primitive costume with three noble lovers, one of whom was he who wore the tell-tale ring. Further investigation revealed that this Aztec Messalina had been in the habit of giving herself up to every young man that struck her fancy, and when weary of her lovers had caused them to be put to death, and represented in her apartments by the statues above referred to. After the parties had been tried and found guilty by the proper courts, the king sent to all the cities round about Anáhuac and summoned all the people to witness the punishment of his false wife. With her three surviving lovers and about two thousand persons who had in some way abetted the deception of the king, the amorous queen was publicly strangled. All acknowledged the justice of the act, but the Mexican royal family, it is said, never forgave the public execution of the sentence.[IX-23]

[Sidenote: ANECDOTES OF NEZAHUALPILLI.]

Nezahualpilli is said to have inherited all the good qualities of his father. Like Nezahualcoyotl he was a patron of the arts and sciences, but is reported to have given his chief attention to astrology, passing many nights in reading the stars from a lofty observatory erected for the purpose in the grounds of his palace. Sorcerers and magicians were always welcome at his court, whither they were often summoned both to advise the monarch on affairs of state and to impart to him a knowledge of their arts. Like his father he was famed for his inflexibility in the administration of justice and his kindness toward the poor and unfortunate. A small window in one part of his palace overlooked the market-place, and at this window the king was wont to sit frequently, watching the actions of the crowd below, noting cases of injustice for future punishment, and of distress and poverty that they might be relieved. How he condemned to death a judge for deciding unjustly against a poor man and in favor of a noble, and how he had his favorite son Huexotzincatzin executed for having publicly addressed his concubine, the lady of Tollan, has been related in a preceding volume.[IX-24] Many other anecdotes are told to illustrate the king's love of what he deemed justice. One of his sons began the construction of a palace somewhere in the Tezcucan domains without having either consulted his father or complied with the law requiring some brilliant deed in battle before a prince was entitled to a palace of his own. The guilty son was put to death. Members of the royal family seem to have had the greatest faith in the king's judgment and to have accepted his decisions without complaint. There was great rivalry between his two brothers Acapipioltzin and Xochiquetzal respecting the credit of a certain victory in the province of Cuextlan. Each had a band of partisans who were accustomed on public occasions to celebrate the deeds of their favorite by songs and dances. So far did the rivalry proceed that a resort to arms was imminent, when Nezahualpilli appeared on the scene on the occasion of some festivity and joining the dance on the side of his oldest brother Acapipioltzin, decided the dispute in his favor without complaint on the part of the younger brother. The condemnation of two men, a musician and a soldier, for adultery, was on one occasion brought to the king for his approval. He ordered the musician to be executed, but the soldier to be sent for life to do duty in the frontier garrisons, declaring that such thereafter should be a soldier's punishment for the fault in question. Nezahualpilli could also on occasion be most indulgent towards his children; for instance, his son Ixtlilxochitl early displayed an extraordinary fondness for having his own way. At the age of three years he expressed his emphatic disapproval of his nurse's views and conduct by pushing that lady into a deep well, and then amused himself by throwing stones upon her. When seven years old he raised a company of boy soldiers and skirmished about the city much to the terror of peaceful citizens. Hearing that two members of the royal council had advised his father to kill so unmanageable a child, he proceeded one night with a selected detachment of his juvenile veterans to the house of the counselors and assassinated them both. Nezahualpilli seems to have looked with much leniency upon these youthful irregularities of his son, who at fourteen distinguished himself in battle and at seventeen was a captain. We shall hear of him again in the last years of Aztec history. The king on another occasion demanded from a brother a very excellent teponaztli in his possession and his daughter for a royal concubine; on his refusal the teponaztli was taken by force, and his disobedient brother's house was razed as the property of a rebel. Two sons were strangled for having appropriated captives actually taken by their soldiers; a daughter for having spoken to the son of a lord; and two concubines for drinking pulque. A judge was hung for hearing a case in his own house instead of in the appointed hall of justice; and another for unduly prolonging a trial was condemned to have the front door of his residence walled up. This king is accredited with having abrogated the law which condemned the children of slaves to the condition of their parents, and with many other reforms calculated to ameliorate the condition of his people. The possession of supernatural powers was popularly attributed to him, and often in infancy he astonished his nurses by appearing before them in the form of a bird or beast.[IX-25]

* * * * *

In the years 1498 and 1499 it is recorded that Ahuitzotl attacked Atlixco without warning, and was defeated by the Huexotzincas who, under a famous general Tultecatl sent re-inforcements to aid the armies of Atlixco; and also that, by aiding Cholula in a quarrel with Tepeaca, the same king greatly increased his power on the eastern plateau. The following year Tultecatl, before whose valor the Aztecs had been forced to retreat, was driven from his own country in consequence of certain religious dissensions, and applied at one of the Mexican towns for protection. He was put to death, however, with all his companions, by Ahuitzotl's order, and the dead bodies were forwarded to Huexotzinco to show the rebellious inhabitants of that city with what relentless zeal the Aztec ruler pursued his foes.[IX-26]

[Sidenote: INUNDATION OF MEXICO.]

Ahuitzotl, finding the water supplied by the Chapultepec aqueduct insufficient for the use of the city, and moreover desirous of accomplishing during his reign some great work of practical utility, determined to conduct to his capital the waters of a spring called Acuecuexatl, near Huitzilopochco, in the province of Coyuhuacan. Tzotzomatzin, the lord of the province, was unwilling that the spring should be thus used, but his opposition was effectually overcome by strangling him. Many tales are told by different writers about his opposition to the scheme, and his death. Some say that he wished the water for the supply of his own cities; others, that he told Ahuitzotl the spring was liable at any time to overflow and flood the city, and was killed by the latter in a fit of passion at his persistence in that opinion; and still others represent him as a great magician, who frightened away the Mexican king's ambassadors who were sent to negotiate with him in the matter, by appearing before them in the form of a ferocious beast, or serpent. Tezozomoc says he put the cord round his own neck to save his people from the wrath of the Aztecs; and Duran, that he did not die, but simply left Coyuhuacan at this time. Difficulties being thus removed, the aqueduct was constructed of stone and mortar, in a very short time, owing to the number of workmen employed, and its completion was celebrated with the proper ceremonies and sacrifices. But soon--some say in the midst of the ceremonies--so great was the volume of water introduced, that the city was inundated by the rising of the lake, and immense damage resulted to public and private buildings. It is, of course, impossible that the waters of any spring in Anáhuac could have caused this effect; indeed, Torquemada says the catastrophe was preceded by heavy rains for a year, and Ortega also tells us that the rains came down in torrents at the completion of the aqueduct; it is, therefore, altogether probable that the flood was not caused by the waters of the canal, but was simply attributed to that cause from superstitious motives, perhaps resulting from the predictions of Tzotzomatzin, and his death. So rapid was the rise of the waters, that king Ahuitzotl, who was in the lower part of his palace, had great difficulty in escaping, and in his haste struck his head against a door-post, receiving a wound which, a few years later, proved fatal. The engineering skill of Nezahualpilli, with the laboring force of the whole empire, was at once called into requisition to stop the flood and repair damages. The old dike that had before saved the city was strengthened and raised; the city was repaired and paved with tetzontli, or porous amygdaloid, the use of which is said to date from this period; but to stop the waters of the unruly spring human efforts were unavailing, and the aid of the gods was invoked with magic rites. First the priests, whose bodies were painted blue in honor of the Tlalocs, stood round the fountain and uttered prayers, burned incense, and scattered perfumes; then the divers plunged into the waters, each with a young child whose heart was torn out, and whose blood stained the waters; and finally the priests entered the water, and, as some say, Nezahualpilli with them. Half an hour after their emergence the waters became so quiet that the laborers were able to wall up the spring and stop the overflow. Other cities about the lake had suffered as much, or even more, than Mexico, particularly Cuitlahuac, which is said to have been uninhabitable for two years. Much damage was also done to the crops in the valley, and the next year was one almost of famine. The flood occurred in 1500, and at least two years passed before Anáhuac had recovered from its effects.[IX-27]

[Sidenote: ACCESSION OF MONTEZUMA II.]

Campaigns against Cuextlan, Tlacuilollan, and Xaltepec, are vaguely reported during the last two years of Ahuitzotl's life, and may be distinct from any of the wars that have been mentioned, but no details are given, save that from Tlacuilollan twelve hundred captives were brought back to Mexico.[IX-28] The king died in 1503,[IX-29] as is generally supposed from the effects of the blow mentioned above; although Tezozomoc attributes his death to chagrin and remorse at the misfortune of the flood, and Duran hints that he was poisoned. His likeness is said to have been sculptured with those of his predecessors on the cliff at Chapultepec. Ahuitzotl's leading passion was his love of war, so strong as to amount almost to a hatred of peace. He was also passionately fond of music, of display, and of women. He was cruel, vindictive, and superstitious; and the quality of generosity attributed to him was probably closely connected with his reputed love of display and flattery. Immediately after his death Montezuma II., son of Axayacatl, was called to the throne; although, according to Ixtlilxochitl, his elder brother Macuilmalinatzin was the first choice of the electors, but was rejected by the advice of Nezahualpilli, who doubted his possession of the requisite qualities for the ruler of a great nation. Montezuma had already distinguished himself on many occasions in battle, and was at the time of his election high-priest of Huitzilopochtli. When the news of his election reached him he is said to have been employed in sweeping the temple, from a spirit of real or feigned humility. The usual campaign for captives was successfully directed against Atlixco, and foreign nobles from hostile as well as friendly provinces came in crowds by invitation to witness the coronation ceremonies.[IX-30]

[Sidenote: POLICY OF MONTEZUMA.]

Ahuitzotl left the Aztec empire in the height of its power and glory, yet even before his death the seeds of future disaster may be said to have been sown or even to have taken root, since the hitherto unparalleled sacrifice of human victims on the altars of the capital had filled the whole country with terror and added much to the hatred of which the Aztecs had been the objects from the date of their first appearance in the valley; the rapid increase of the Mexican power and their well-known greed of conquest had added to the hatred of the conquered the jealous fears of such nations as still retained their independence; and finally the reverses suffered in Tehuantepec, in Michoacan, and in several battles against the eastern nations, had taught the peoples of North America that the allied armies of the central plateaux were not altogether invincible. The dangers that thus began to threaten the empire, however, were all external, and might perhaps have been averted or long deferred by a series of successful wars under brave but wise kings. Under the preceding kings, the common interests of all classes in the success of the government, had been a prominent element of national glory. Commercial enterprise had done as much as valor in war to promote the conquests of kings and to build up the capitals; the common soldier might by bravery and brilliant achievements in battle hope to reach the highest military rank; the menial service of the royal palace with many posts of honor had been entrusted largely to plebeian hands; and in fact Aztec policy had been strikingly analogous to that which distinguished the French nation under the first Napoleon. The granting of titles and honors to the merchants had naturally excited much opposition among those who derived their titles of nobility from a long line of Chichimec or Toltec ancestors; and what made the matter even more galling to their pride, was the fact that these parvenu nobles by reason of their wealth were able to completely outshine their confrères of purer blood but slender purses, in all public displays as well as in their palaces and style of living. Montezuma II. from the first days of his reign openly espoused the cause of the ancient nobility against the merchants and plebeians. What is known of his character renders it probable that he was prompted to this course chiefly by his own extremely aristocratic tastes; but it is not impossible that he gained his election by committing himself to such a policy. He began by dismissing all plebeians employed about the royal palaces and appointing youths of noble blood in their places. He was warned that such a course would separate the interests of the common people from those of royalty and prove dangerous in the future; but he replied that he wished nothing in common with plebeians, who must be taught to keep their place and give up their absurd aspirations. His policy toward the merchants and the army was more cautious but equally decided. Advantage was taken of every opportunity to humble and oppress the hated class, by constantly clogging with new restrictions the wheels of trade, and by the promotion whenever practicable of noble officers. Montezuma was, however, a valiant and skillful warrior, and sacrificed oftener his inclinations to his interests in the treatment of his armies than in other cases. His policy of course gradually alienated the classes on which the prosperity of the empire chiefly rested, and ensured the fall of the Aztec power whenever disaffection should have an opportunity to ally itself with foreign foes. The bursting of the storm was averted for some fifteen years by the strength of the Acolhua and Tepanec alliance, and by the strength of the Mexican army. Montezuma's reign was a succession of campaigns against revolting provinces, interspersed with the erection of magnificent temples, frequent and extensive immolations of human victims, and omens of disaster sent by the gods to trouble the mind of the superstitious monarch. When at last the day drew near when Mexico must struggle single-handed for the retention of her supremacy against a combination of all the Nahua powers, the last chance for success in such an unequal contest disappeared with the re-inforcement of the enemy by Spanish valor, Spanish armor, and Spanish horses; and Montezuma personally had not even the melancholy satisfaction of seeing his foes fall before the same wave of foreign invasion which had destroyed forever his own power.[IX-31]

[Sidenote: WAR AGAINST TLASCALA.]

Tlascala had thus far never been the object of an invasion by the united forces of the allies, although, as we have seen, frequent battles had been fought on the frontier, and the Tlascaltec armies as allies of other nations had been several times defeated. During the reigns of Montezuma I. and Axayacatl, however, the Tlascaltec territory had become completely surrounded by Aztec possessions, through the conquest of Cuetlachtlan, Cuextlan, and Totonacapan. Their communication with the coast having thus been cut off, the Tlascaltec commerce had been almost entirely destroyed, and for a period extending down to the Conquest, this brave people were obliged to do without many luxuries, and even necessities of life. Their lack of salt is particularly recorded; a small supply was occasionally smuggled into the state by the nobles, but the common people are said to have abstained entirely from its use, and to have completely lost their relish for this article. The other cities of the eastern plateau had in the meantime become either the subjects or allies of the Mexicans. Immediately after his accession to the throne, Montezuma II. determined to direct his armies against this last unsubdued territory in the east. The excuse was an embassy sent by the Tlascaltecs, probably to Axayacatl, complaining of the oppression to which their merchants were subjected on the coast, the claims of the embassy having been received with insulting indifference, and threats having been freely uttered on both sides. Huexotzinco and Cholula seem both to have allied themselves with Mexico in this affair; but, on the other hand, Tlascala had received constant additions to her population and armies in the refugees from all parts of Anáhuac, who were continually applying for protection to the only nation beyond the power of the Aztecs. The war was begun by the Huexotzincas and Cholultecs, who invaded Tlascala, killed in battle one of their chief leaders, Tizatlacatzin, and penetrated to within one league of the capital; but they were driven back, and the Huexotzinca towns were in turn ravaged by the Tlascaltecs, sending couriers to Montezuma to hasten the march of his forces. The Tlascaltecs, hearing of the approach of the Aztecs, fell upon them before they could effect a junction with their allies, and defeated them, inflicting heavy losses, and killing among others Tlacahuepantzin, the son of the Mexican king.[IX-32] After the funeral ceremonies in honor of his son, Montezuma made another attempt to subdue the Tlascaltecs, sending against them the whole available force of the empire; but after a hard-fought battle the invaders were again driven back, and although skirmishes, and even battles, took place afterwards between the two nations, yet the Aztec allies never repeated their attempt to crush Tlascala, and the brave little republic retained her independence until by the aid of Cortés she was able to take her revenge on the tyrannical Mexicans and treacherous Cholultecs.[IX-33]

In 1505 the crops were destroyed by the excessive heat, and although the public granaries were generously opened to the public by Nezahualpilli and Montezuma--for the latter, notwithstanding his aristocratic tendencies, was generous towards his people so long as they claimed nothing more than a right to exist--many perished of starvation or sold themselves and children as slaves. Totonacapan was again apparently the only province unaffected by the famine. Another plague in the form of rats which over-ran the country in immense numbers is recorded at about the same time; but the volcano of Popocatepetl ceased for twenty days to emit smoke, a good omen, as the wise men said and as it proved, for the next year was one of great plenty.[IX-34] During the year of the famine a campaign against Guatemala, or as some authors say Quauhnelhuatlan, which may have been a Guatemalan province, is recorded as having yielded many captives for the inauguration of the temple of Centeotl, built in recognition of her services in staying the drought and sending a year of plenty. The festivities on the completion of certain repairs to the causeway and aqueduct of Chapultepec at about the same time were marred by the burning of a temple in Mexico. It is related that the Tlatelulcas seeing the flames, thought the city was invaded by an enemy and rushed in to help protect it, but that Montezuma chose to regard this as an act of rebellion and temporarily removed all Tlatelulcas from their positions at court.[IX-35]

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF THE MIZTECS.]

Before the end of 1506, two campaigns were made against the Miztecs by the last of which the whole province was permanently subdued. The pretext of the first was the refusal of Malinalli, lord of Tlachquiauhco, to give Montezuma for his royal gardens a very rare plant in his possession. An army was dispatched to bring the plant and punish the people; Tilantongo, Achiuhtla, and Tlachquiauhco fell before the Mexican soldiers; and the rare tlapalizquixochitl, or 'red flower,' was transplanted to Mexico, although the Oajacan records insist, according to Burgoa, that it died on the way. The Miztecs next determined upon a final effort to shake off the Mexican yoke, which well nigh succeeded. Cetecpatl, king of Cohuaixtlahuacan, invited the garrison of the impregnable Huaxyacac and other Aztec fortresses to a grand banquet, and on their return they were set upon by the ambushed troops of Nahuixochitl, lord of Tzotzolan, and all put to death, save one that escaped to tell the news. The Miztecs, now thoroughly aroused, adopted the tactics that had proved so effective in Tehuantepec, fortified their positions in the mountains near Tzotzolan, and awaited the attack. The first army sent by Montezuma was defeated and driven back with great loss. A second army representing the whole strength of the Aztec allies now marched southward under Cuitlahuatzin, Montezuma's brother; but the Miztec forces could not be dislodged from their strong position until Cozcaquauhtli, lord of Huauhtlan and a brother of Cetecpatl, betraying his people, or faithful to his ruler Montezuma as the Mexican writers put it, opened his city to the enemy, revealed all Cetecpatl's plans, and led Cuitlahuatzin by secret paths to a commanding position whence the attack was made and the Miztecs routed. Nahuixochitl soon came up with a fresh army from Tututepec, but was in his turn defeated. The whole province, including Tututepec and other cities on the shores of the Pacific, was then over-run and permanently subjected to Mexican authority. The captives included the leaders, and were brought back to Mexico in time to grace with their blood the festival of tlacaxipehualiztli, or 'flaying of men,' although according to some authorities the leaders, Cetecpatl and Nahuixochitl, were reserved for a later occasion.[IX-36]

[Sidenote: TYING-UP OF THE LAST CYCLE.]

Also in 1506 the Huexotzincas and Cholultecs had a quarrel, in which the former had the advantage and by a raid burned a few houses in the city of the latter. Knowing that Montezuma had great veneration for the city of Quetzalcoatl, the Huexotzincas thought it best to send ambassadors to explain the matter. The envoys for some reason not made clear greatly exaggerated the matter, representing Cholula as having been utterly destroyed and the inhabitants driven to the mountains. Greatly enraged the allied kings sent an army to chastise the perpetrators of such an outrage on the holy city; but the Huexotzincas escaped their punishment by stating the truth of the matter and delivering up for sacrifice the envoys with their ears and noses cut off. An expedition at the same time against Itztitlan and Itzcuintepec, and another according to Ortega and Torquemada against Atlixco, together with a war in Tecuhtepec, furnished a large number of captives, some of whom were sacrificed at the dedication of the Tzompantli[IX-37] or 'place of skulls,' while the rest were reserved for the tying-up of the cycle and lighting of the new fire which took place the following year, accompanied by ceremonies that have been described in a preceding volume. This was the last ceremony of the kind the Mexicans ever had the opportunity to perform; before another cycle had elapsed, the native gods had lost their power, their rites had been abolished, and replaced by others that did not include human sacrifices. The rites of the Inquisition were as cruel as those they replaced, but the number of victims in America was comparatively small.[IX-38]

The year 1507 was marked by the occurrence of an eclipse and an earthquake, by the drowning of eighteen hundred soldiers in the Miztec country, and according to Ixtlilxochitl, by the execution of Tezozomoc, lord of Azcapuzalco and father-in-law of Montezuma, for adultery. In his trial it is related that the Mexican judges voted for his banishment, the Tepanec added that the end of his nose should be cut off, but Nezahualpilli, who had the final decision, ordered him to be strangled, much to the displeasure of Montezuma. During the same year the allies sent an expedition to the region of Mitla, which plundered a few towns and captured a small number of prisoners. The provocation of this war is not recorded. Immediately after its return an army was sent under Cuitlahuatzin against Quauhquelchula in the Huexotzinca region. The result was a victory with a goodly array of captives, but obtained only after a serious loss, including five Mexican leaders. The captives served for the inauguration of the temple previously burned, as has been noted, but now rebuilt, and also for the festival of the 'flaying of men.' According to Tezozomoc and Duran the provocation of this war was the burning of the temple of the goddess Toci in Mexico, or as Tezozomoc understands it, the tociquahuitl, a wooden signal tower on the hill of Tocitlan. Duran also informs us that a representation of Mexican nobles attended by invitation the festivals in honor of Camaxtli, at which were sacrificed the Aztec captives taken during the war. A renewal of hostilities with Huexotzinco is mentioned in the eighth year of Montezuma's reign.[IX-39]

[Sidenote: OMENS OF DISASTER.]

With the new cycle began a period, during which, down to the appearance of the Spaniards at Vera Cruz, almost every event was invested with a mysterious significance, every unusual phenomenon of nature, every accident, every illness, every defeat in battle, failure of crops, excessive heat or cold, rain or snow, thunder and lightning, shooting star or comet, earthquake or eclipse,--each and all portended evil to the Aztec empire, evil which some seem even at the time to have connected with the olden predictions of Quetzalcoatl respecting the coming of a foreign race to take possession of the country. The superstitious monarchs, priests, and nobles were in a constant state of terror. There are but two ways of accounting for this state of affairs; first by supposing that the supernatural element in the various events referred to, the terror which they caused in the minds of the natives, and many of the events themselves, were pure inventions of the native historians formed after the coming of the Spaniards to support the claims of their sages to a foreknowledge of events, or simply for the sake of telling a marvelous tale; and second by supposing that the terror of Montezuma and his companions, and their disposition to carefully note and construe into omens of evil each unusual occurrence, was caused by a knowledge more or less vague that the Spaniards were already on the American coasts. While there is every reason to believe that there are both inventions and exaggerations in the records written after the coming of foreigners, I am disposed to attribute the effects referred to above chiefly to the actual presence of Europeans. For about fifteen years the Antilles had been more or less completely in the possession of the Spaniards; five years before the opening of the new cycle Columbus had coasted Central America and even established a colony in Veragua. It is altogether improbable that no knowledge of the white men and their wonderful winged vessels had reached Mexico, however vague and exaggerated that knowledge may have been. The Aztec traders were not now such indefatigable and trustworthy spies as in former times, but they would hardly have failed to bring to Mexico exaggerated rumors of approaching disaster. It is also quite possible that various articles of European manufacture, or even human remains of white men, had been washed on the Totonac or Xicalanca shores. That Montezuma and his companions attached considerable weight to the traditional predictions of Quetzalcoatl and Hueman there is no reason to doubt. The predictions referred to may have been the threats of some exiled chieftain of ancient times, or the vain imaginings of a fanatic priest uttered to maintain his reputation among his followers; possibly the result of some native cosmographer's theorizing respecting other lands across the ocean; not quite impossibly the remnant of an ancient knowledge of trans-oceanic peoples; and of course not the result of any prophetic foreknowledge; but like all other pretended prophecies they became at once most valid and authentic on the occurrence of circumstances which might be interpreted as their fulfillment.

[Sidenote: MONTEZUMA AND NEZAHUALPILLI.]

The signs and omens that followed those already mentioned I shall briefly relate without paying much attention to their chronologic order; very little else than these omens and the means adopted to avert their consequences is recorded from 1508 to 1512. An army sent to the province of Amatlan perished with cold and by falling trees and rocks; and a comet with three heads, perhaps the one already mentioned, hung over Anáhuac.[IX-40] Then a wonderful pyramidal light appeared in the east, reaching from the earth to the sky, visible for forty days, or, as some say, for a whole year, in all parts of the country, from midnight till morning, very similar, according to the description, to the Aurora Borealis. Nezahualpilli was so affected by these signs that he gave orders to discontinue all hostilities. An interview was held between him and Montezuma, although for some time they had not been on speaking terms. Nezahualpilli saw clearly in the strange omens the approaching end of the empire and his own death, but was resigned to the decrees of fate; Montezuma, on the contrary, instead of resignation felt only anger, and is even said by Tezozomoc and Duran to have strangled many of his sorcerers for their unfavorable interpretation of the signs, and their failure to avert evil omens. At last a game of tlachtli was agreed upon between the two monarchs to decide whose interpretation should be accepted; and to show how little importance he attached to his wealth and power, Nezahualpilli is said to have wagered on the result his kingdom of Acolhuacan against three turkey cocks. He won the game, but still Montezuma was not disposed to yield to the fates, and still persecuted his magicians in the hope to elicit a more favorable prognostication, but in vain; the magicians all agreed with the Tezcucan monarch. About the same time the towers of Huitzilopochtli's temple took fire in a clear night without apparent cause, and were reduced to ashes in spite of all efforts to extinguish the flames; and another temple was set on fire by lightning. This was the temple of the god of fire, and was now burned for the second time.[IX-41] In this period, in the reign of the second Montezuma, Brasseur puts the story of a mysterious aerial journey of the two kings to the ancient home of the Aztecs, referring perhaps to that already taken from Duran and applied to the time of Montezuma I.[IX-42] Torquemada, Clavigero, and Vetancvrt, tell us of the resurrection of Papantzin, a sister of Montezuma, who brought back from the land of the dead to her royal brother an account of the new people who were to occupy the land, and of the new religion they would bring. This lady is said to have been the first Mexican to receive the rites of Christian baptism, and the priests took pains to send a duly authenticated account of her miraculous resurrection to Spain. The intimate connection of this tale with the religious prejudices of the invaders, renders it unnecessary to seek even a foundation in truth for the report. Sahagun also speaks of a resurrected woman who predicted the fall of the empire, living twenty-one years thereafter and bearing a son. Boturini attributes this return from the dead to a sister of the king of Michoacan at a much later date, while the Spaniards were besieging Mexico.[IX-43] In 1509, as several authors say,[IX-44] the waters of the lake became violently agitated, without wind, earthquake, or other natural cause, and in consequence the city was inundated. The fishermen of the lake caught a large bird like a crane, wearing a round transparent crown, through which Montezuma saw the stars, though it was in the daytime, and also many people that approached in squadrons, attired like warriors, and seeming half men, half deer. The bird disappeared before the sorcerers could satisfactorily interpret this strange thing. Double-bodied and double-headed men also were seen, and on being brought before the king suddenly disappeared; and the same happened with men who had no fingers and toes. In 1511 armed men were seen fighting in the air; and a bird appeared whose head seemed human; and a large stone pillar fell near the temple of Huitzilopochtli, no one knowing whence it came. An earthquake and a deluge at Tusapan, are reported; at Tecualoia a most ferocious and horrible beast was captured; a female voice was several times heard bewailing the fate of her children. At Tlascala a bright light and a cloud of dust arising from the summit of Mount Matlalcueje to the very heavens, caused the people to fear the end of the world was coming. The sorcerers of Cuetlachtlan also saw many wonderful visions; but among the peoples outside of Anáhuac the fearful phenomena and the predicted coming of a foreign people were less terrible than to the Aztecs, for with their terror was mingled hope of relief from the Aztec yoke. A wild hare invaded Nezahualpilli's garden, but the king would not allow the animal to be killed, for in the same manner, he said, would a strange people presently invade his country. Tezozomoc and Duran give a long and detailed account of Montezuma's sufferings. It seems that he was not content with his own dreams and omens, but instructed his subjects to report to him all their visions; at last he was so distracted that he determined to hide himself from impending calamities in a cave, but was prevented from such a course by a series of supernatural events more absurd, if possible, than those that have been narrated. Herrera tells us that Montezuma had in his possession a box washed on the eastern shore containing wearing-apparel and a sword of a style unknown to the natives.[IX-45]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: VISIONS AND OMENS.]

In the meantime military operations had not been suspended, for the anger of the gods could only be averted by sacrifice, and victims could only be obtained by war; but the details of these campaigns and their order are nowhere definitely recorded. It is stated, however, that in 1511, the Cuetlachtecas, encouraged by the visions of their magicians, and by the troubles that had fallen upon Anáhuac, refused openly to pay their tributes, and yet remained unpunished.[IX-46] In the same or following year, the Cakchiquel records note the arrival of a numerous embassy of the Yaqui, or Mexicans, at their court. Nothing whatever is said of the object of this mission, or its results; but the Abbé Brasseur has no doubt that the object sought was information respecting the actions of the Spaniards on the coast of Central America.[IX-47] Although Nezahualpilli seems to have lost most of his interest in political affairs, and to have contented himself with simply awaiting future developments, no superstitious terror in Montezuma's breast could overcome his ruling passion, ambition; and according to the authorities he was inclined to take advantage of his colleague's listlessness for his own aggrandizement. Ixtlilxochitl relates an act of treachery against the Tezcucan monarch, which, in view of the author's well-known prejudice against Montezuma, may be received with much doubt; according to this author, the Mexican king represented to Nezahualpilli that the anger of the gods was caused to some extent by the failure to offer captives from Tlascala, and the substitution of victims from distant provinces obtained not in holy battle but in a mere attempt to extend the imperial domain. He proposed a joint campaign against Tlascala; Nezahualpilli consented, saying that his inaction had not been the result of cowardice, but he had ceased to fight simply because the year of 1 Acatl was near at hand when the empire must fall. He sent an army under his two sons, but Montezuma had secretly notified the Tlascaltecs that the Acolhua's motive was not the capture of victims, but the conquest of the republic, promising to take no part himself in the battle. The Tlascaltecs were very angry and the Aztec army stood calmly by and saw the Acolhua forces led into ambush and massacred. The whole march of Nezahualpilli's army had been marked by the occurrence of many omens of evil. Immediately on his return Montezuma openly proclaimed his opposition to his colleague and ordered a suspension of all Tezcucan tributes from the cities about the lake. While there are reasons to doubt this act of treachery and the openness of his opposition to Nezahualpilli, it is evident that the two kings regarded each other from this time as enemies.[IX-48]

[Sidenote: MONTEZUMA, AZTEC EMPEROR.]

In 1512, with great festivities and the sacrifice of twelve thousand captives--taken it is said in a war against the revolting Miztec province of Tlachquiauhco--was dedicated a new sacrificial stone. It was only after a long search that a suitable stone was found near Coyuhuacan, and after it was formed and sculptured with the fitting devices, notwithstanding the honors paid it on the way to the capital, it broke through one of the causeways and carried with itself to the bottom of the lake the high-priest and many of his attendants. It was afterwards recovered and placed in its appointed place. Tezozomoc and others tell many marvelous tales of this stone, how it spoke frequently on the way, and how after sinking it found its way back to its original location. Tezozomoc also states that in connection with the ceremonies at this time Montezuma publicly proclaimed himself Zemanahuaca Tlatoani, equivalent to 'emperor of the world.'[IX-49]

[Sidenote: LIMITS OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE.]

During the next few years Montezuma seems to have determined by brilliant exploits in battle to defy the predictions of his magicians and to shake off his own superstitious fears. In 1512, according to Torquemada, the Xuchitepecs and Icpactepecs were subjugated; in 1513, the Yopitzincas, who had attempted the destruction of the Mexican garrison at Tlacotepec, were defeated; in 1514, the city of Quetzalapan in Cuextlan was taken with many captives, although at the cost of several Aztec leaders of high rank; and in 1515 took place the conquest of Cihuapohualoyan and Cuexcomaixtlahuacan, including the siege of the strongholds of Quetzaltepec, Totoltepec and Iztactlalocan, narrated at considerable length by Duran, who represents this war as having been caused by the refusal of the inhabitants to furnish a peculiar kind of sand needed by the Mexican lapidaries in polishing precious stones.[IX-50] Torquemada and Ortega relate that an expedition was at about this time sent southward to Honduras, Vera Paz, and Nicaragua, all of which were subjected to the Mexican power, the two former without much opposition, the latter only after a hard battle, a defeat, and subsequent treachery on the part of the Aztecs.[IX-51] There is every reason to believe that this report is unfounded, and that the countries south of the isthmus, save perhaps Soconusco, were never conquered by the Mexicans. I need not enter into any discussion here respecting the limits of the Aztec empire; since the annals recorded in the preceding pages, with a résumé of the subject in a preceding volume,[IX-52] are sufficient. In general terms the empire extended from the valley of Mexico westward only to the adjoining province of Matlaltzinco, Michoacan having always retained her independence; north-westward only a few leagues beyond the limits of the valley; in the north-east, east, and south-east it embraced the whole country to the gulf coast from the Rio Pánuco in the north to the Rio Alvarado in the south, excepting the small territory of Tlascala; in the south-west and south it reached the Pacific coast, along which it extended from Zacatollan to Tututepec; and it also included some towns and garrisons in Soconusco, and on the frontiers of Chiapas. Or, according to modern political geography, the empire embraced the states of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guerrero, and western Oajaca, with small portions of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Chiapas. The whole of Oajaca, including Tehuantepec, was at one time subjected, but the Zapotecs regained their independence, as we have seen, before Montezuma's reign. Beyond these limits doubtless many raids were made, and towns, with small sections of territory, were reduced momentarily to Mexican provinces; hence the varying statements of different authors on this subject.[IX-53]

* * * * *

The appearance of the Spaniards on the distant American coasts, the predictions of disaster which all the soothsayers agreed in deriving from constantly recurring omens, the approaching subjugation of his people to a race of foreigners in which Nezahualpilli firmly believed, and above all the haughty and treacherous manner and deeds of Montezuma, who now made no secret of his intention to make himself supreme monarch of the empire, had a most depressing effect on the Tezcucan king. He retired with his favorite wife and a few attendants to the palace of Tezcocingo, announcing his intention of spending his remaining days in retirement, but six months later he returned to Tezcuco, retired to his most private apartments, and refused to see visitors. Some time afterwards, when his family insisted on being admitted to his presence, his death was announced to them, having been concealed for some time by the attendants acting under his orders. The peculiar circumstances of his decease caused the invention of the popular tale, according to which he had not died but had gone to the ancient Amaquemecan, the home of his Chichimec ancestors. His death occurred in 1515.[IX-54]

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF IXTLILXOCHITL.]

For some unknown reason Nezahualpilli had not named his successor on the throne, and the choice thus devolved upon the royal council in conjunction with the kings of Mexico and Tlacopan. So far as can be determined from conflicting accounts the sons of the deceased monarch and heirs to the throne were as follows in the order of their age:--Tetlahuehuetquizitzin, Cacama, Cohuanacoch, and Ixtlilxochitl. The eldest son was deemed incompetent to rule the kingdom, Cacama was chosen by the council, and the choice warmly approved by Montezuma, who was Cacama's uncle. When the decision was announced to the other brothers, Cohuanacoch approved it, but Ixtlilxochitl protested against the choice of Cacama, insisting that his oldest brother should be proclaimed king. Something has already been said about this prince's fiery temper in early years,[IX-55] and age seems to have had no effect in calming his violent character. But on this occasion he seems to have been actuated not only by his own ambition to reign or to control the reigning monarch, but by patriotic motives and a desire for his country's freedom. He denounced, probably not without reason, the council as acting wholly in the interests of the treacherous Montezuma, who had insulted his father, and aspired to the imperial power; and he regarded Cacama as a mere man of wax to be molded at will by the crafty monarch of the Mexicans. The details of the quarrel are given at considerable length by the authorities, but are hardly worth reproducing here; the trouble seems to have lasted, if the chronology of the records may be credited, two years, much of which time was passed by Cacama at Mexico with his uncle. At last, however, finding his efforts unavailing, Ixtlilxochitl left Tezcuco with his partisans and went to the province of Meztitlan with the intention of exciting a revolt in his own behalf, while Cacama in 1517 proceeded to his capital to receive the crown of his father.[IX-56]

Ixtlilxochitl was in a high degree successful in the northern provinces, whose inhabitants were almost unanimous in their approval of his opposition to Montezuma, and gladly ranged themselves under his banners. Marching southward from Meztitlan at the head of a hundred thousand men, he was received as king in Tepepulco and other towns until he reached Otompan, where he met considerable resistance, but at last entered the city and made it thereafter his capital. He also took possession of all the northern towns, such as Acolman, Chiuhnauhtlan, Zumpango, and Huehuetoca. The news of his proceedings in the north reached Tezcuco just after the coronation ceremonies of Cacama, or, as some say, during their continuance. Montezuma seems to have made one effort to quell this northern revolt and to have sent one of his bravest generals against Ixtlilxochitl, but this general, Xochitl, was defeated, captured, and burned alive by the fiery Chichimec prince; no farther attack was made by the Mexican king. During the course of this year, 1517, the Totonacs secretly gave in their allegiance to Ixtlilxochitl, and of course Tlascala, the inveterate foe of Mexico, supported his cause. Montezuma's failure to renew his efforts against the rebel, and the increasing spirit of revolt among the Aztec provinces are in great measure accounted for, when it is remembered that at this time the Spaniards, under Hernandez de Córdova, again appeared on the coast of Yucatan and Tabasco,[IX-57] and the exaggerated reports of their appearance and deeds served to cause a renewal of the old terror in Mexico, and a corresponding hope, not altogether unmingled with fear, in the oppressed provinces. Cacama, either influenced by the same fears, or more probably encouraged to yield to his own kindly feelings towards his brother by Montezuma's failure to proceed against Ixtlilxochitl, sent an embassy to his brother, who, from his new headquarters at Otompan, had shown no intention of marching against Tezcuco, proposing an amicable settlement of their difficulties. Ixtlilxochitl replied that he had none but the kindest feelings towards his brother and the kingdom of Acolhuacan, but renewed his denunciations of Montezuma, and his warnings against that monarch's ambitious designs. A division of the kingdom was finally decided upon, Ixtlilxochitl retaining the sovereign power in the northern provinces, Cacama retaining his throne at Tezcuco and his place in the Aztec alliance, and Cohuanacoch receiving a large amount of revenue for his constant support of the king. Ixtlilxochitl faithfully observed the terms of the treaty, but retained all his enmity against the Mexicans; he had an opportunity to strike a decisive blow against the hated power a little later as an ally of the Spaniards.[IX-58]

[Sidenote: FINAL WARS OF MONTEZUMA.]

Yet wars were still waged by the allied kings as before, for the only hope of averting impending disaster was by drenching with human blood the altars of the gods. Several campaigns are recorded as having yielded captives in considerable numbers, but no details are given. Battles against the Tlascaltecs were continued down to the very last; the Mexicans fighting generally as allies of the Huexotzincas. In one of these battles the Huexotzinca chief Tlachpanquizqui by a valiant feat of arms obtained pardon for serious crimes which he had committed, and great rewards besides. He captured the famous Tlascaltec warrior Tlalhuicol and brought him to Mexico. But the honor of his capture was all that Montezuma desired; for he immediately offered Tlalhuicol his freedom, which was refused. The Tlascaltec was then put in command of a Mexican army and sent against the Tarascos, whom he defeated, taking their stronghold of Tangimaroa, or Tlaximaloyan, and subduing many towns on his way. He returned laden with spoils to Mexico, was entreated to accept the permanent position of Commander-in-chief of the Aztec armies, or at least to accept his release and return to his country; but the brave Tlalhuicol deemed it a dishonor to return or even to live after his capture, and earnestly entreated the privilege of dying like other prisoners of rank on the gladiatorial stone. His request was sorrowfully granted, eight of Anáhuac's best warriors fell before him in the conflict, but by the ninth he was subdued, and his heart was offered as a pleasing sacrifice to the god of war.[IX-59]

In the same year, 1517, it is related that Montezuma in his zeal to appease the irate deities, ordered the grand temple of Huitzilopochtli to be covered from top to bottom with gold, precious stones, and rare feathers. His Minister of Finance, ordered to supply the cost of this extravagant act of piety by imposing a new tax on the people, objected and warned the tyrant that his subjects would endure no increase of taxation. His objections were removed by putting him to death, but we hear nothing farther of the golden covering.[IX-60] The following year, or 1518, took place at Mexico the last of the long series of sacrificial immolations on a large scale, at the dedication of the temple of Coatlan, on which occasion were sacrificed the captives that the last campaigns had yielded.[IX-61] But almost before the groans of the dying victims had died away there came to the ears of the Aztec sovereign the startling tidings that the eastern strangers had again made their appearance, this time on the Totonac coasts of his own empire. Juan de Grijalva and his companions had followed the gulf coast northward, and reached the spot where now stands the city of Vera Cruz.[IX-62]

[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF JUAN DE GRIJALVA.]

All Aztec officials in the coast provinces had strict orders to keep a constant look-out for the eastern strangers, and in case of their arrival to treat them kindly, but by pretence of traffic and by every possible means to ascertain who they were, whence they came, and the nature of their designs. In accordance with these orders Pinotl the Aztec governor of Cuetlachtlan and his Mexican subordinates were foremost among the visitors to the wonderful ships of Grijalva; paintings were quickly but carefully prepared of the strangers, their ships, their weapons, and of every strange thing observed, and with the startling news and the pictured records the royal officials hastened to Mexico and communicated their information to Montezuma. The king, concealing as well as possible his anxiety and forbidding the messengers to make the news public, immediately assembled his royal colleagues and his council of state, laid the matter before them and asked their advice. The opinion was unanimous that the strangers were the children of Quetzalcoatl, returning in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies, and that they should be kindly received, as the only means of conciliating the good will of the numerous followers of the ancient prophet. An embassy was sent with rich presents to the coast, but they were too late; the Spaniards had departed, with a promise, however, of returning at an early date.

The events that followed down to the fulfillment of that promise by the arrival of Hernan Cortés in 1519 are not very definitely recorded, but these months formed a period of the greatest anxiety on the part of the Aztec rulers and of mingled dread and hope for their numerous enemies. Interest in the one absorbing topic caused all else to be forgotten; there was no thought of conquest, of revolt, of tributes; even the bloody rites of Huitzilopochtli were much neglected and the star of the peaceful Quetzalcoatl and his sect was in the ascendant. Prophets and old men throughout the country were closely questioned respecting their knowledge of the old traditions; old paintings and records were taken from every archive and carefully compared with those relating to the new-comers; the loss of the precious documents burned by Itzcoatl was now seriously felt; the glass beads and other trinkets obtained from the Spaniards, and even carefully treasured fragments of ship biscuit, were formally deposited with all the old Toltec ceremonies in the temple of Quetzalcoatl. Many fictitious paintings were palmed off on the credulous Montezuma as ancient records in which the children of Quetzalcoatl were pictured in an amusing variety of absurd forms, but some of the documents agreed very closely with the late paintings of Montezuma's agents, showing that others had bethought them to represent on paper Grijalva's company or some preceding band of Spaniards.[IX-63]

* * * * *

At last the presence of Cortés on the southern coasts, and his progress towards the Aztec possessions, was announced, and an embassy was dispatched to await his arrival, and to receive him with every attention and with the richest gifts the empire could afford. Subsequent events belong to the history of the Conquest, and must be narrated in another work; the remaining chapters of this volume being required for such fragments as have been preserved respecting the aboriginal history of other nations and tribes outside the central plateaux of Mexico.

[Sidenote: ANÁHUAC IN 1519.]

I close the chapter and the annals of the Aztec period, with a brief glance at the general condition of affairs in and about Anáhuac in 1519, and the most extraordinary combination of circumstances that made it possible for Hernan Cortés to overthrow with a handful of Spanish soldiers a mighty aboriginal empire. The power known as Aztec, since the formation of the tri-partite alliance not quite a century before under the Acolhua, Mexican, and Tepanec kings, had gradually extended its iron grasp from its centre about the lakes to the shores of either ocean; and this it had accomplished wholly by the force of arms, receiving no voluntary allegiance. Overburdened by taxation; oppressed and insulted by royal governors, Aztec tribute-gatherers, and the traveling armies of Tlatelulca merchants; constantly attacked on frivolous pretexts by blood-thirsty hordes who ravaged their fields and carried away the flower of their population to perish on the Mexican altars; the inhabitants of each province subjected to this degrading bondage entertained towards the central government of the tyrants on the lakes feelings of the bitterest hatred and hostility, only awaiting an opportunity to free themselves, or at least to annihilate their oppressors. Such was the condition of affairs and the state of feeling abroad; at home the situation was most critical. The alliance which had been the strongest element of the Aztec power was now practically broken up; the ambitious schemes of Montezuma had alienated his firmest ally, and the stronger part of the Acolhua force was now openly arrayed against him under Ixtlilxochitl at Otompan, leagued with the Tlascaltec leaders for the overthrow of the Mexican power. It is probable that the coming of the Spaniards retarded rather than precipitated the united attack of the Acolhuas and the outside provinces on Montezuma. But again, to meet the gathering storm, the Mexican king could no longer count on the undivided support of his own people; he had alienated the merchants, who no longer, as in the early days, did faithful duty as spies, nor toiled to enrich a government from which they could expect no rewards; the lower classes no longer deemed their own interests identical with those of their sovereign. Last but far from least among the elements of approaching ruin was the religious sentiment of the country. The reader has followed the bitter contentions of earlier times in Tollan and Culhuacan, between the rival sects of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. With the growth of the Mexican influence the bloody rites of the latter sect had prevailed under the auspices of the god Huitzilopochtli, and the worship of the gentler Quetzalcoatl, though still observed in many provinces and many temples, had with its priests been forced to occupy a secondary position. But the people were filled with terror at the horrible extent to which the latter kings had carried the immolation of human victims; they were sick of blood, and of the divinities that thirsted for it; a re-action was experienced in favor of the rival deities and priesthood. And now, just as the oppressed subjects of ecclesiastical tyranny were learning to remember with regret the peaceful teachings of the Plumed Serpent, and to look to that god for relief from their woes, their prayers were answered, Quetzalcoatl's predictions were apparently fulfilled, and his promised children made their appearance on the eastern ocean. The arrival of Cortés at this particular juncture was in one sense most marvelous; but in his subsequent success there is little to be wondered at; nor is it strange that the oppressed Nahuas received almost with outstretched arms the ministers of the new faith thus offered them by the Spaniards.

FOOTNOTES:

[IX-1] Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 93-8; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xl.; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 495; Brasseur, Hist., tom. i., pp. 326-31; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 265-6.

[IX-2] Torquemada, tom. i., p. 182.

[IX-3] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 263, 269-70, 410; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 183-4; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 254-5; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 331-4; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 272-5; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 36. Several authors attribute the completion of the temple to Ahuitzotl.

[IX-4] Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xl.; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 495; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiii.; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 271, 276-8; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 253-4, 256. This author gives the date as 1482. Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 182-5; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 36-7; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 269; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 334-5; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. vi., p. 141, date 1487; Tezozomoc, in Id., vol. ix., pp. 98-100; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 265, 267; Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 47-8. Ixtlilxochitl claims that Tizoc died a natural death, and that Techotl died during his reign.

[IX-5] See vol. iv., pp. 377-84.

[IX-6] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 337-40, tells us that the Xiquipilco campaign furnished captives for the coronation, while the products of the other wars were reserved for the dedication. Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 99-108, speaks of the conquest of some city in Chiapas; while Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 499, states that a place called Quaxutatlan was taken by means of an artificial floating island. It is impossible to form from the authorities any idea of these wars and their chronological order. See, Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xli.-ii.; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 467; Sigüenza, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. i., p. 72; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 37; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 257; Veytia, tom. iii., p. 278; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 186.

[IX-7] On the dedication, see vol. ii., p. 577; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 268; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xliii-iv.; Motolinia, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 254; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 257; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 186; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 37; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 152; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 341-5. Considering the number of the victims sacrificed, it is probably more correct to suppose that several sacrificers were occupied at the same time.

[IX-8] Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 345-6; with reference to Torquemada, tom. i. lib. ii., cap. lxiii. which contains nothing on the subject.

[IX-9] Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 109-12, 154, places the Cuextlan war before the dedication, and calls Chimalpopoca's successor Tlaltecatzin. See also Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., pp. 269-70; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 37-8; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 187; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 294-5; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 345-7; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 258; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 268.

[IX-10] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 187, 191; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 258-9; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 348-9; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 295-6; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xl.; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 152.

[IX-11] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 278-80; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 349-52.

[IX-12] Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 120-7; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xliv., tom. ii., cap. xlv.; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 352-5. This author also refers to Torquemada and Ixtlilxochitl, who have nothing to say of this war and colony, although the latter, p. 271, speaks of the conquest of Zapotlan and Xaltepec, which may have been in the same campaign.

[IX-13] Ixtlilxochitl, p. 271.

[IX-14] Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. ix., pp. 337-8.

[IX-15] Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 151. The date is put at 1494 by this document.

[IX-16] See vol. iv., pp. 368-71.

[IX-17] Burgoa, Geog. Descrip. Oajaca, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 367, et seq.

[IX-18] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 355-62.

[IX-19] Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. ix., p. 337, et seq.

[IX-20] Burgoa, Geog. Descrip. Oajaca, tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 367-76.

[IX-21] Burgoa, as in note 20; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 362-9. A full account, mostly from Burgoa, is given in the Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. vii., pp. 167, 175-7, 183-7. Other authorities touch very vaguely upon the events related above; most of them utterly ignoring the defeat of the Aztecs. Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. xlvi-vii., liv-v., puts the marriage in Montezuma's reign, and says that the Tehuantepec king was told by his wife of the plot against his life by 10,000 soldiers who had entered the capital in small groups as guests; he caused the whole 10,000 to be put to death. According to the Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 153, the king of Tehuantepec never afterwards allowed a Mexican to set foot in his country. This document makes Pelaxilla a daughter of Montezuma. Clavigero, tom. i., p. 262, says that the Aztec forces penetrated Guatemala at this time, referring to the Xuchiltepec campaign. Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 268, 271-2, states that the allies took 17,400 captives from the Zapotecs in 1499. According to Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, p. 2, Chiapas was made tributary to Mexico about 1498. See also for slight references to events that may be connected with these campaigns in the south-west. Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 127-37; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 193; Piñeda, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., p. 347.

[IX-22] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 270-1.

[IX-23] On the family affairs of Nezahualpilli, see Torquemada, tom. i., p. 184; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 255-6; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 372-5; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 265, 267, 271-2; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 36-7; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 275-6.

[IX-24] Vol. ii., pp. 446-50.

[IX-25] For these and other anecdotes of Nezahualpilli, see:--Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 267, 273-7; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. 1.; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 180-90; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 385-92; Granados y Galvez, Tardes Amer., pp. 48-9.

[IX-26] Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 259-60; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 191; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 375-7; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 296-9; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 38.

[IX-27] Respecting this flood, see: Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 272-3; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 137-41; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 192-3, 293; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 377-82; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. xlviii.-ix.; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 299-302; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 260-2; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 269; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 38-9; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 500-1; Bustamante, Mañanas, tom. ii., pp. 208-9; vol. ii., p. 566 of this work.

[IX-28] Torquemada, tom. i., p. 193; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 262. In the Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 48, is given a list of forty-five towns conquered by Ahuitzotl.

[IX-29] Clavigero and Vetancvrt make the date 1502. Ixtlilxochitl in one place, p. 457, says 1505.

[IX-30] Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. li-v., states that the first wars were directed against Nopallan, Icpatepec, and Toltepec; and that during the campaign Montezuma ordered the death of the tutors of his children and the attendants of his wives. Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 141-53, adds Huitzpac and Tepeaca to the towns mentioned by Duran. See also on death of Ahuitzotl and accession of Montezuma II.: Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 262-7; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 193-5; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 303-9; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 382-97; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 265, 277, 457; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 501-6; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiv.; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 29; Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 51-2; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 303; Sigüenza, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. i., pp. 74-6.

[IX-31] See on the policy and government of Montezuma II., vol. ii. of this work, passim; also, Duran, MS. tom., ii., cap. liii.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 145-6; Ixtlilxochitl, p. 278; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 267-75; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 309-19; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 398-402; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 196, 205-6; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 505-7; Codex Mendoza, in Kingsborough, vol. vi., p. 14; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 39; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xiv.; Villa-Señor y Sanchez, Theatro, tom. i., pp. 4-5.

[IX-32] Camargo says the combined armies were beaten at this battle. Torquemada places the event in the third year of Montezuma's reign. Ixtlilxochitl, Duran, and Tezozomoc represent Tlacahuepantzin as the brother of Montezuma, and Ixtlilxochitl implies that he was sent to this war, placed in 1508, in the hope of his death. This brother is perhaps the same person spoken of by Ixtlilxochitl on p. 443. Duran and Tezozomoc seem to regard this as a war against Cholula and Huexotzinco.

[IX-33] On the war with Tlascala, see: Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 275-80; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 197-203; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 320-7; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 402-9; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 40-1; Camargo, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcviii., pp. 178-86; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lvii-lxi.; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 271, 278; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 160-78; Oviedo, tom. iii., p. 497.

[IX-34] This famine occurred in the third year of Montezuma's reign, according to Clavigero; in fourth year, as Torquemada says; and Ixtlilxochitl puts it in 1505 and 1506. See Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 203-4, 235. Ixtlilxochitl, p. 278; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 282-3; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 41; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 409-10; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 331-2; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 270; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 153.

[IX-35] Clavigero, tom. i., p. 283; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 332-4; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 204, 207; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 41; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 410-11; Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. lv., lix.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 170-1.

[IX-36] Ixtlilxochitl says the war was afterwards carried into Guatemala and Nicaragua. Brasseur tells us that the treacherous Cozcaquauhtli was made king of Cohuaixtlahuacan; others say ruler of Tzotzolan. According to Torquemada, the war was in the fifth year of the reign, and preceded by an eclipse of the sun. Tezozomoc refers to a campaign against Xaltepec and Cuatzonteccan in Tehuantepec. Vetancvrt gives as the date the seventh year of the reign. Clavigero makes Cozcaquauhtli the brother of Nahuixochitl. See Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 196-7, 207-9, 215; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 275, 283-4; Burgoa, Geog. Descrip. Oajaca, tom. ii., pt i., fol. 166-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 41-2; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 411-17; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 153-6, 162-4, 180; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 279-80; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 334-7, 359; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxv.

[IX-37] Ixtlilxochitl, p. 278, speaks of a conquest of Zocolan in 1506, and of Totecpec in 1507. Duran, MS., tom. i., cap. lv., speaks of the conquest, at about this time, of Quatzoutlan and Toltepec, where Montezuma ordered that all persons over fifty years of age should be put to death. Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 284-6; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 337-40; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 417-20; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 209-10.

[IX-38] The lighting of the new fire took place at midnight, March 21-2, 1507, at the beginning of the year 2 Acatl, between the days 7 Tochtli and 8 Acatl. Codex Chimalp., in Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., p. 423. The Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 153-4, says that the tie of the years had usually taken place in 1 Tochtli (1506), but was changed by Montezuma to 2 Acatl (1507). Most other authors name 1506 as the year of the fête; but perhaps they mean simply that 1 Tochtli the last of the seventh cycle corresponds for the most part, although not exactly of course, to 1506. See Boturini, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 240; Veytia, tom. iii., p. 340; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 210-11; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 285-6; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 41; see also vol. ii., p. 341, and vol. iii., pp. 393-6.

[IX-39] Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 427-8, names Macuilmalinatzin, the brother of Montezuma, among the killed, and applies, probably with some reason, to this war the suspicions of Ixtlilxochitl, respecting foul play on the part of the Mexican king already referred to--(see note 32). See also: Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 343-4; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 211; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 286; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 278-9; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 171, 177; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 41-2; Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 154; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxii.

[IX-40] Ixtlilxochitl dates the Amatlan war in 1514; Brasseur puts the war in 1510; Torquemada denies that the comet had three heads.

[IX-41] This was very likely the occasion already noted when the Tlatelulcas rushed into the city, supposing it to be invaded.

[IX-42] See pp. 422-4, of this volume; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 213.

[IX-43] Clavigero throws discredit on Boturini's version; I find it difficult to feel implicit faith in that of Clavigero.

[IX-44] Torquemada says in 1499.

[IX-45] On these evil omens, see Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 278-80; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 344-59; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 211-14, 233-9; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 286-92; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 42-3, 126; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 177-8, 183-9; Codex Tell. Rem., in Id., vol. v., p. 154; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. viii., ix.; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 428-41; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 510-14; Camargo, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcix., pp. 139-40; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxiii., lxvi-ix.; Sahagun, tom. ii., lib. viii., pp. 270-1; Boturini, Catálogo, pp. 27-8.

[IX-46] Torquemada, tom. i., p. 214; Veytia, tom. iii., p. 361; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 42.

[IX-47] Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 442-7, reference to Mem. de Tecpan-Atitlan.

[IX-48] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 280-1.

[IX-49] Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 168, 181-3; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 293; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 214-15; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxvi.; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 448-50; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. viii.; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 511; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 42-3.

[IX-50] It is impossible here to distinguish between references to Tututepec in Oajaca, and Tototepec, or Totoltepec, north-east of Mexico. The Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 154, mentions in 1512 the conquest of Quimichintepec and Nopala, towards Tototepec, and also that the stones in that year threw out smoke which reached the skies. The same authority records the conquest of Tututepec on the Pacific, and an earthquake in 1513; the conquest of Hayocingo in 1514, and that of Itzlaquetlaloca in 1515. See Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 278-80, 283-4. This writer also mentions the wars of Mictlanzinco and Xaltaianquizco as among the last waged by the Aztec monarchs. Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lvi. Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 293-4; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 359-60; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 214-5; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 42.

[IX-51] Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 218-19; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 361-3.

[IX-52] Vol. ii., pp. 93-5.

[IX-53] Ixtlilxochitl, p. 280, gives the southern boundaries as Huimolan, Acalan, Vera Paz, and Nicaragua; the northern as the Gulf of California and Pánuco; makes the empire cover all the ancient Toltec territory, and incorrectly includes besides the north-western states, those of Tabasco and Guatemala. Herrera, dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xiii; lib. ix., cap. i.; agrees with the limits I have given, and shows that Goazacoalco and Tabasco never belonged to the empire. Aztecs never subdued the region about Zacatecas. Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, p. 9. Clavigero, tom. iv., pp. 267-9, tells us that the empire stretched on the Pacific from Soconusco to Colima; that Chiapas was only held by a few garrisons on the frontier; that the province of Tollan was the north-western limit; Tusapan the north-eastern, Pánuco and the Huastecs never having been subdued; Goazacoalco was the south-eastern bound.

[IX-54] On Nezahualpilli's death see:--Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 216-17; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 282, 388, 410; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 452-5; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxiv.; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 363-4; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 294-5; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 178-9. Several authors make the date 1516; Duran says ten years before the coming of the Spaniards, or in 1509.

[IX-55] See p. 451 of this volume.

[IX-56] Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 282-3, 410, and Torquemada, tom. i., p. 221, are the chief authorities on the succession of Cacama. The former records a report, which he doubts, that Nezahualpilli before his death indicated as his successor a younger son, Yoiontzin. He implies that Cacama was an illegitimate son and had no claim to the throne, but was forced on the Acolhua nobles against their will by Montezuma. Torquemada, on the other hand, makes Cacama the oldest son and legitimate heir, not mentioning the existence of Tetlahuehuetquizitzin, and does not imply that Montezuma had any undue influence in the choice of a new king. Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxiv., and Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., p. 179, give an entirely different version of the matter. They say that the Acolhua lords were summoned to Mexico and invited by Montezuma to select their new king. When they told him there were five competent sons--only two of whose names, Cohuanacoch and Ixtlilxochitl, are identical with those named by other authorities--he advised the election of Quetzalacxoyatl, who was therefore elected and proved a faithful subject of the Mexican king. He only lived a few days, however, and was succeeded by his brother Tlahuitoltzin, and he, after a few years, by Cohuanacoch, during whose reign the Spaniards arrived. See also, Brasseur, Hist., tom. iv., pp. 14-21; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 367-9; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 297-9; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 43-4; Herrera, dec. iii., lib. i., cap. i.

[IX-57] On the voyage of Córdova, see: Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 349-51; Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., pp. 3-8; Peter Martyr, dec. iv., lib. i-ii.; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. xvii.; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 1-5; Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i., pp. 49-52; Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 222-4; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 60-1.

[IX-58] On Ixtlilxochitl's revolt and the treaty with Cacama, see: Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 369-75; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 299-302; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 223-7; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iv., pp. 21-3, 36-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 44; Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 283-4.

[IX-59] Camargo, in Nouvelles Annales, tom. xcviii., pp. 189-91; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 172-5; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 197, 201, 228; Brasseur, Hist., tom. iv., pp. 23-7; Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 280-2; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 325, 328-31, 375-6; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., pp. 45-6.

[IX-60] Codex Chimalp., in Brasseur, Hist., tom. iii., pp. 34-6.

[IX-61] Torquemada, tom. i., p. 228; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 376-7; Vetancvrt, Teatro, pt ii., p. 46.

[IX-62] On Grijalva's voyage, see:--Diaz, Itinerario, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., pp. 281-307; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 6-11; Peter Martyr, dec. iv., lib. iii-iv.; Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., pp. 55-64; Gomara, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 811, 568; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. i-ii.; Torquemada, tom. i., pp. 351-8; Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 224-8.

[IX-63] Torquemada, tom., i., pp. 378-80; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 515-16; Veytia, tom. iii., pp. 377-8; Duran, MS., tom. ii., cap. lxix-lxx.; Tezozomoc, in Kingsborough, vol. ix., pp. 189-94; Herrera, dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. ix.