USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 2 > Part 14
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The famous temple of Belus at Babylon, about which we have such splendid, accounts, but always couched in general terms, seems to have resembled the great Mexican temple at Teotihuacan, both in structure and dimensions. Both were square. solid fabricks. Both resembled several towers placed one on the top of the other. The temple of Belus consisted of eight platforins, or terraces, rising one above the other, and decreasing in extent as they rose. The temple of Teotihuacan, has five of these terraces or platforms, which
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rise and decrease in a similar manner. Here then we have evi- dence, by comparison of the state of the arts among the Baby- lonians, and it could not have much exceeded that of the Lydians their neighbors. Again, the Chaldean computation of time, was scarcely more perfect than that of the Mexicans. The latter had an almost exact knowledge of the duration of the year. They in- tercalated at the end of their great cycle, or period of one hundred years. The Abbe Clavigero, says; " Their year consisted of three hundred and sixty days. The state then of society, and of the arts among the Chaldeans, were not greatly before those of the Mexicans. It may be said, that the Chaldeans were acquainted with letters- this we grant. The Mexicans were acquainted with hieroglyphical writing, and not picture writing, as has been asserted by Dr. Ro- bertson, De Paw, and others, and this is but one step behind the other.
TOLTECAN AND OTHER EMIGRATIONS.
The first peopling of Anahuac (Mexico,) is shrouded in utter darkness. All the historians, however, of the Toltecans, Cheche- mecans, Acolhuans, Mexicans, and Tlascalans, are agreed upon two points : First, that their ancestors came from the north; and second, that the country was occupied by savage tribes of hunters when they arrived.
The Toltecans, it appears from the same authors, were the oldest civilized nation of Anahuac. According to their annals, they were banished about the year five hundred and ninety-six of our era, from Huehuetapallan, a country situated to the north-west of Mexico.
We shall remark in this place, that the Abbe Clavigero uses the words north-west and north when speaking of the Toltecans. This induces us to suppose that the interpreters of the Mexican hiero- glyphical writings have fallen into mistakes in the translation, or that those who have copied from those translations may have miscopied. This obtains additional weight when we find that they go on and say, " after their banishment they (the Toltecans.) journied to the south, continuing but a short time in a place ;" that they continued in this wandering aud unsettled state always advancing southwardly for the
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space of one hundred and four years, when they arrived at Tol- lantzinco, fifty miles west of the city of Mexico." Now it is evi- dent that if Huehuetapallan had been situated to the north-west of Mexico, and beyond the Colerado of the west, and they had jour- nied from it always to the south, or southwardly, for one hundred and four years, they would never have arrived at Tollantzinco, but at some place on the gulf of California many hundred miles to the west. In another place the Abbe Clavigero says, " all the histo- rians of the Toltecans, Chechemecans, Acolhuans, and Mexicans, agree that their ancestors came from the north." The Mississippi and Ohio valleys which abound most in works of defence, mounds, &c. are northwardly of the city of Mexico, and we suspect these are the regions alluded to. From the valley of the Mississippi there are two routs to. Mexico, the one through the province of Texas, and the other through the' steppes of Missouri and Arkansaw, to the Rio del Norte. The latter is the most practicable., Our peo- ple who travel to Mexico from St Louis, take the latter route and pass through St. Fee on the Rio del Norte. Hence, it may be in- ferred that the Toltecans pursued the same as far as the latter ri- ver, halting from time to time in the most favored places ; the jour- neying would in the main be southwardly, although very, indirect. By adopting this supposition, the contradictions in the text may be in some respects reconciled. The Toltecans when they set out bad no particular place in view ; hence they crossed the Rio del Norte and proceeded to the Colerado of the west, and then followed that river down to or near its mouth, &c. The others followed their footsteps. . Hue-hue-ta-pal-lan, Ama-quem-e-can, Teoa-col-hua- can, and Aztlan, adjoined each other; the same people dwelt in these states. . They could not have been north-west of the Colo- rado, though they might have been north-east. That they were, and northwardly from Mexico, seems highly probable ; the balance of evidence seems to favor the latter opinion. But to return-the Toltecans after their banishment journeyed to the south, remaining but a short time in a place ; that they continued in this wandering and unsettled state, always advancing southwardly, for the space of one hundred and four years, when they arrived at a place to which
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they gave the name of Tollantzinco, situated about fifty miles wes of the city of Mexico.
: About twenty years after their arrival they removed westward's about forty miles, and founded the city of Tollan, or Tula, between the years 715 and 720. The era of the Toltecan kingdom bears date with the foundation of Tula. It subsisted to the year 1032. when it was destroyed, and the nation almost obliterated from the face of the carth by famine, pestilence, &c.
The Toltecans were the most renowned of all the people of Ane- huac for their superior civilization, and their skill in the arts ; they lived in society, and were collected into cities under the govern- ment of kings and laws; they cleared land, cultivated the earth, raised corn, grew cotton, and other products ; they fabricated cloth. and worked several kinds of metals, such as copper, silver, gold, &c. They could cut the hardest stones.
During the time their kingdom existed they multiplied exceed- ingly ; they built many cities, made many roads, and spread them- selves over the vale of Mexico and many other places of Anahuac. Many of the tumuli, or pyramids, which are now in Mexico were reared by the Toltecans. The lofty tumulus of Cholula was con- structed by this people in honor of their God, Quetzalcoatl. After the destruction of the Toltecan kingdom, and the dispersion of the remnant of the nation, it appears from the same annals that the land of Anahuac remained almost entirely depopulated for the space of one hundred years, until the arrival of the Chechemecans.
The Chechemecans, like the Toltecans, who preceded them, came from the north. Their native country, of which we are ig- norant, was called Amaquemecan ; their motive for leaving their country is unknown. It appears from the same annals that they ar- rived in the vale of Mexico about the year 1153, and about eighteen months after their departure, and that they established themselves at a place called Tenayuca, six miles north of the city of Mexico. The Chechemecans upon their arrival formed alliances with the Toltecans. In the course of time both nations became amalga- mated, and constituted but one people.
A few years after the arrival of the Chechemecans in the Mexi- can vale, a numerous body of Acolhuans arrived from Teoacolhua-
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can, a country neighboring to, and not far distant from the kingdom of Amaquemecan. The Acolhuans were the most civilized of all the nations which were in Anahuac since the Toltecans ..
Soon after this the Toltecans, and such of the Chechemecens as had united in husbandry and sedentary habits, united themselves with the Acolhuans, and thereby formed only one nation. Hence the nation, or union of three people from one, assumed the name of Acolhui, and the kingdom Acolhuacan. The Acolhuic emigrants, it is supposed, arrived in the kingdom of Acolhuacan after the be- ginning of the thirteenth century.
· The Na-hu-at-la-cas, or ancestors of the founders of the famous city of Mexico, likewise originally came from the north, and con- sisted of seven tribes. These tribes were the So-chi-mil-cas, the Chal-chese, the Tapanecas, the Colhuas, the Tla-hui-cas, the Tlas-ca-lans, and the Mexicans. The origin of all these tribes was Aztlan, from whence came the Mexicans, or some other country contiguous thereto, and inhabited by the same people or nation. All the historians represent them as coming originally from one and the same country, and as speaking the same language. These tribes did not arrive in the land of Anahuac at one time, but at different times. The Toltecans, and all the other tribes that came after them, spoke the same language, that is, the Mexican.
The Aztecks, or Aztecas, who were the last people that settled in Anahuac, lived until about the year 1160 in the country of Azt- lan, situated to the north of the gulf of California. The cause of the abandonment of their country is like that of those who preceded them, except as to the Toltecans, altogether unknown. In their migration the Aztecks crossed the Colerado, which discharges it- self into the gulf of California at latitude thirty-two degrees and thirty minutes, several hundred miles above its mouth, and after- wards the Gila, which falls into the latter river. . The country, therefore, from whence the Aztecks came, must have been beyond latitude [thirty-five degrees, and upwards of sixteen hundred miles north-north-west of the city of Mexico. We say north-north-west, because they approached that city in that direction after they had passed the Colerado. There are two rivers which the Spaniards have called by this name ; the west and the south. The former
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runs into the gulf of California, and the latter into the Mexican sts The first has its source in the Rocky Mountains, in north latitude forty-one or forty-two degrees, and pursues a south-westward , course nearly or quite seven hundred miles. It was this river the the Aztecks crossed in their march to Anahuac.
After having passed the Colerado, the Aztecks directed the= march to-the south-east, and came to the Gila, a tributary of tix Colerado, where they halted for many years. The Gila rises be- tween latitudes thirty-three and thirty-four.degrees north, and joins the Colerado very near its mouth. The Gila has its source also the Rocky Mountains, but more to the south than the Colerad: The remains of great edifices which the Aztecks constructed who. they continued there, are still to be seen on the Gila as monumezs of their skill and industry.
From thence they decamped, and resumed their march to the south-south-east, and halted in north latitude twenty-nine degrees at a place more than two hundred and fifty miles distant from the city of Chihuahua, thirteen hundred miles from Mexico towards the north-north-west. This place is now known to the Spaniards by the name of Case Grandi, on account of an immense edifice stu existing which was built by the Aztecks. This edifice is construc- ted on the plan of those of New Mexico ; that is, consisting of three floors, with a terrace above them, and without any entrance to the under floor. Case Grandi is four hundred and forty-five feet iz length from north to south, and two hundred and seventy-six feet in breadth from east to west. It was constructed of clay and stone, abd had several stories and apartments. The surrounding plain exceeds & square league, and is covered with broken earthen pitchers and pos. prettily painted in red and white. This edifice must have been : fortress, as it is defended on one side by a mountain, and on the other by a wall, now in a very ruinous condition, seven feet thick. Several kitchen utensils have been found at this place; such as earthen pots, jars, dishes, and little looking-glasses made of the stone itzli. This edifice was, as has been remarked, constructed of stone and earth, and covered with lime mortar, upwards of six hundred years ago.
From Case Grandi the Aztecks directed their march south-east-
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wardly to Huicolhuacan, at present called Guliacan, on the gulf of California, in twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes of north lati- tude, where they stopped three years. From Huicolhuacan, jour- neying many days to the east, they came to Chicomoztoc, where they halted.
Hitherto all the tribes had travelled in a body, but here from some cause they separated and left the Mexicans. The place where they separated is supposed to have been near the modern city of Zacatecas, as about twenty miles south of that city there are · the remains of a large edifice, which, according to the tradition of the Zapotecas, was the work of the Aztecks, or Mexicans, in their march through their country. The Mexicans remained here nine or ten years.
Proceeding from Chicomoztoc, in the country of the Zapotecas, towards the south, the Mexicans came into the maritime province of Colina, and from thence to Zacatula, where turning to the east- ward, they arrived at Malinalco, not far from the valley of Tolula; and afterwards, directing their march towards the north, they ar- rived at the city of Tula in the year 1196.
In their peregrination, after crossing the Colerado, it appears that the Mexicans travelled upwards of one thousand miles more than was necessary, in order to reach Anahuac, or Mexico, as it has since been called,
After a residence at Tula of nine years, the Mexicans removed to other places not far distant, until in the year 1216 they arrived at Zampanco, a considerable city in the vale of Mexico.
In the year 1325 they founded the city of Mexico, which soon became the capitol of an extensive empire.
From the sixth to the thirteenth century, population appears to have rolled from the north towards the south. From the regions on the other side of the Colerado. came those nations who overran and conquered Anahuac, or Mexico.
From the foregoing it appears that the Toltecans arrived in Mex- ico about the year 700; that their kingdom subsisted to 1052 ; that the Chechemecas arrived about the year 1153; that the first Nahuatlacas arrived about the year, 1178; that the Acolhuas, or Acolhuans, arrived towards the end of the twelfth century ; that VOL. 11 20
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the Mexicans arrived at Tula in the year 1196, at Zompanco is 1216, and at Chapoltepec in 1245. The Aztecks, or Mexican, were thirty-six years in marching from Aztlan to Tula, nine miles from the city of Mexico.
At the time of the arrival of the Mexicans, the country was c :- vided into many small states, and contained a considerable popula- tion which was sedentary. The inhabitants of most of these smas states spoke the Mexican or Anteck language. The Mexicans were at first feeble, and had to submit to vassalage. By degrees they rose into consequence and power. They founded the city of Mex. ico, drained the marshes in its neighborhood, made roads, con- structed aqueducts, &c. They contracted alliances, with the kings of Acolhua, &c. subverted several states, compelled others to pay tribute, and menaced the liberties of all. The Mexican empire at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1521, including the kingdom of Acolhua and the little republic of Tlascala, contained about one hundred and thirty thousand square miles.
M. de Humboldt, who appears to have been unacquainted with the fact of there being mounds and fortifications in our western states resembling those of the Mexicans, after speaking of the migrations to Mexico, between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, of the cultivation of the ground, the structure of cities, the making of roads, dykes, canals, pyramids, or mounds, and fortifications, the fabrica- tion of cloth, the founding of metals, of hieroglyphical writings, &c. &c. by the Toltecans and Mexicans, exclaims, " Where is the source of that cultivation ? Where is the country from which these people issued ? Tradition and hieroglyphics name Huehuetapallan, Tallan, and Aztlan, as the residence of these nations. . There are no remains at this day of any ancient civilization of the human spe- cies to the north of the river Gila, or in the northern regions tra- velled through by Hearne, Fiedler, and McKensie."
The Abbe Clavigero assures us that the Mexicans offered human and other sacrifices on the summits of their temples in the city of Mexico, in 1520 and 1521. He speaks of the same things being practised in other parts of the empire. Several Spaniards and Mexicans in their service were sacrificed in the course of the siege. He derived his information from Diaz, Torquemada, and other old
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Spanish authors. Diaz served in the Spanish army at the siege of Mexico, and was an eye witness. The Mexicans had their priests, altars, and temples.
Various conjectures and opinions have been formed concerning the origin of the Toltecans, Acolhuans, and Mexicans. Some, and among others, authors of deserved celebrity, have supposed that they were direct from Asiatic Tartary, because they came from the north-west. Humbolt is of opinion that the Toltecans were of Hunnic origin, because the era of their migration corresponds with the dissolution of the Hunnic empire in Upper :Asia, and the subsequent migration of a portion of that nation to the north. But however the eras may agree, this supposition proves nothing. The Toltecans were not of Hunnic origin. The Acolhuans and Mexi- cans were the same people. They had the same language, man- ners, customs, and laws, and came from the same country, or other countries contiguous thereto. The difference in the physiognomy alone would refute the supposition. The Huns belonged to the Mongolian race, which is different from the Mexican or any other in America. The circumstance of their approaching the vale of Mexico from the north-west can have very little weight ; and this is the strongest evidence given. Nations in their emigrations have not always had fixed places of destination in view. All their move- ments have been controlled by causes and circumstances. The Gothic, the Hunnic, the Vandalic, and Ottoman nations had no par- ticular countries or places of destination in view when they com- menced their migrations. The Goths, the Huns, and the Ouo- mans were forced from their countries ; they took up lines of march with their wives and their children, their flocks, and their herds, and retired before their conquerors. The latter pressed them on. The Goths had to pass the Danube, and pitch their camp in Myssia, a province of the eastern Roman empire. The Goths inhabited the Ukraine, a country situated between Poland, Russia, and Turkey. The Ottomans dwelt in Turkestan, a country east of the Caspian sea. The Vandals resided on the shores of the Baltic, and the banks of the Vistula. The seat of the Huns was in Chinese Tar- tary. It is not our intention to portray the migrations, marches, conquests, and catastrophes of these nations. The Goths in forty
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years opened a way with the sword from the shores of the Black sea, on the east, to that part of the Atlantic ocean on the west which laves Spain and Portugal, a distance of two thousand miles. T ... Vandals in a shorter period traversed Germany, France, and Spais, and crossed the straits of Gibraltar, into Mauritania, and at last ser- tled in Tunis. The Huns, after marching through all Tartary and European Russia, seated themselves in Hungary. The routes per- sued by these nations, and particularly those by the Goths and Van- dals, were very irregular, and as much so as that of the Toltecans, 'Chechemecans, Acolhuans, and Mexicans, would have been insd they decamped from the banks of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Mis- souri, and proceeded to the Colerado of the west, and from thence to the river Gila, and the vale of Mexico-which is what we con- tend. The Americans, in their intercourse with the Spaniards a: this time, set out from St. Louis, at the mouth of the Missouri, and travel to St. Fee, on the Rio del Norte. This seems to be the
most feasible way to Mexico by Jand. May not the Toltecans. Chechemecans, Acolhuans, and Mexicans, have pursued the same. or nearly the same way, as far as the Rio del Norte? We answer yes, they may have ; and we are of opinion that they did advance from the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri, to those of the Ar- kansaw, Red, and Rio del Norte, and from those of the latter stream to those of the Colerado and Gila. . But it is time to come to 2 conclusion : we shall therefore close with some remarks and infer- ences.
From the facts stated, and from the information we have been able to collect on this highly interesting subject, it appears that these fortifications and works commence on the north-east, at or near Black river, at the east end of lake Ontario, and extend south- westwardly to the Arkansaw, and from thence westwardly and south-westwardly to the confines of the Pacific ocean, and from thence south-eastwardly to the vale of Mexico and the adjacent parts. In the United States they are found west of the mountains as far as the lakes, and the vast steppes of the Mississippi and Mis- souri. The fortifications are of three kinds, round or circular, square, and irregular. They are near water, and generally on com- manding ground. They increase in numbers and dimensions au
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the way to the valley of the Mississippi. There are three kinds of · tumuli or mounds-the round, the semi-globular, and square. They are usually situated without the fortifications. In some instances they are surrounded with parapets and ditches.
The fortifications enclosed villages, towns and cities. There may have been some exceptions. The tumuli were constructed for two fold purposes, temples and cemeteries. In Europe, the practice of inhuming bodies in churches has long prevailed .- The Greeks and Romans, before their conversion to Christianity, had a custom of burying their, dead, or depositing their ashes in urns in their temples. Church is only another name for temple. The Pagans had their temples. The Ilindoos and Chinese have their pagodas. Tem- ples were never so numerous as churches. The advancement of civilization and the progress of the arts, and we might add, the in- crease and dissemination of knowledge and correct ideas of Deity and his attributes, have multiplied places of public worship. The ancients supposed that there were superior and inferior gods, and that they resided in particular places. This doctrine pervaded the Pagan world. But Christians have had different ideas and enlarged views. They have supposed, and justly, that there is only one deity, and that he is every where present, and therefore they have multiplied temples or churches. The temple of Belus at Babylon, was like the Mexican temples of Teotihuacan, and Cholula. It was a high place on which sacrifices were offered, and the doctrines of a misterious and bloody superstition practised. The Mexicans sacrificed animals and even men on their temples. The great nound or tumulus at Kahokia in the state of Illinois, resembles the Mexican temples of Teotihuacan and Cholula in its shape, struc- ture and materials, and was reared for the same purpose.
The people who constructed the fortifications or defences and tumuli, were sedentary, not erratic. They depended on the pro- ducts of cultivation for their subsistence, not on hunting and fishing. They inhabited the regions along and on this side of the Mississippi, long before the arrival of the Moheakanneews, Hurons, and other nations of Tartar origin. This is in a measure demonstrated from the fact that none of these nations had any tradition or other me- mento concerning these works, or the people who erected them,
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which they would have had, had the country been inhabited when they came to it. The Zapotecas, a nation of hunters now residing in New Mexico or New Spain, between the Gila and the vale of Mexico, have to this - day, although upwards of six hundred years have elapsed, a tradition of the Mexican or Azteck emigration through their country.
The defences or fortifications, whether in the vicinity of lakes Ontario and Erie, the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, or in the vale of Mexico, intermediate or otherwise, were constructed on the same plan and with the same materials. They have the same appearances, differing only in extent, magnitude, and in a few in- stances in workmanship, consequences of a denser population, more wealth and greater acquirements in the arts.
The round, semiglobular and square mounds or tumuli arc alike, differing only in size. The square tumuli with terraces rising one above another like the temple of Belus, are mostly found in Mexico. These however, are few in number, and may rather be considered as improvements in this kind of structure than a different order. In Egypt this species of structure was carried to the highest state of perfection. The pyramid, which is only a different name for the same structure, is a square edifice, diminishing from its base to its apex, by easy gradations. It superceded the tumulus or mound of earth. Similar relics, implements and utensils have been found at most or all of the works which have been examined. The num- bers found in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and the vale of Mexico, have however been greater than elsewhere. The whole seem to have belonged to, and to have been the works of the same nation or race of men. There is no discernable difference, but such as grew out of an improved state of society. The nation or race of men was in a progressive state. The extent, numbers and workmanship of the defences, tumuli, &c. demonstrate this assump- tion. Those in the Ohio and Mississipi countries surpass all. Here then the nation had attained its achme. This nation first inhabited in the north and then migrated to the south. The defences or for- tifications and mounds in the regions between Black river and the Arkansaw, and between the mountains and the steppes of the Mis- souri and Mississippi and the lakes, are in all probability the most
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