Appendix
A Brief Maya Vocabulary
Acquaintance, kaholâl.
Adder, can, or cam.
——, (harmless,) tzelcam.
Afternoon, zezikin.
Age (an,) khinkatun.
Agony, takyekik, xulikal.
Air, l’k-ikal.
Alligator, ain, chinan.
Alms, ↄayatzil, zitl, matan.
Anger, campectzil.
Animal, balachi.
Ant, zinic, zacal.
Apartment, uay, kakal.
Appetite, ulolal.
Arm and hand, kab.
Ascend, nacal.
Ashes, ↄitaan.
Asthma, coc, coczen, cencoc.
Avarice, coczioïl.
Ax, baat.
Badger, ah, chab.
Ball, (dance,) okot.
Banner, lacân.
Basket, xac.
Bat, zoↄ.
Bath, katchu.
Beam, chalatché.
Beans, bouloul.
Beautiful man, chichcelem.
Bee, yikilkab.
Bed, uay, chac, chacché.
Bed canopy, yuub.
Bed-bug, kulimpic.
Bell, (small,) kilzimoc.
Bench, xacamache.
Bird, chich.
Birth, züan.
To Bleed, tock.
Bleeding, tockil.
Blood, kik, olâm.
Blemish, yikub.
Blind, ekmaï.
Blister, ppool, choolax.
Body, uinclil, cucut.
Bow, pump.
Boy, pal.
Brain, ↄomel.
Bread, uah.
To Break, noppah.
Breast, tzem.
Broom, mizib.
Bug, (flying,) pic.
Butter, tratz.
Buttock, ppucit.
Calabash, chu.
Caldron, mazcabcun.
Calf of the leg, ppuloc.
Cancer, ↄunuz, ↄunuztacon.
Candle, yibac.
Candle, (wax,) yibaccib.
Cane, ochux.
Cat, mix, miztun.
Caterpillar, nok, nokol.
Chair, yec.
Chamber, unoyna.
Chastisement, tzeac.
Cheek, ppuc.
Chicken, cach
Chin, meex.
Cholic, kuxnakil, yanakil.
Circle, peet, petil.
Claws, (beast’s,) mol.
Cloak, (sort of,) zuyem.
Cloudy, nocoycan.
Coal, thabaantchuc, tchuc, cimenchuc.
Cochineal, mukaï.
Cold weather, ceec.
Cold in the head, zizhalil.
Cold, (any thing,) ziz.
Consumption, tzemztemil, nichoïl.
Contagion, bambanicimil.
Cook, or cookery, coben.
Corn, yxim.
Corner, tunk.
Cord, (line,) kaan.
Costiveness, natzhalil, zunↄnalil.
Courage, ikal, ↄabaïl.
Court, tancabal.
Covetousness, natzil.
Crab, ixbau.
Cramp, lotheek, zizoc.
Cricket, maaz.
Cripple, mech, moch.
Crown, nac.
Cruelty, yxmaↄnↄilil.
Dauphin, ahzibic.
Day, kin.
Day-break, yaja-cab.
Day after to-morrow, cabej.
Dead, cimen.
Deaf, cooc.
Deafness, coocil.
Death, cimil, cimen.
Deceit, tabzah.
Deer, ceb.
To Deflower, zat zubuyil.
Descend, emel.
Desire, ↄibolal.
Diamond, kabliztoc.
To Die, cimil.
Dinner, (to eat,) hanal.
Discord, kexolal.
Dog, pek.
Door, hol.
Doubt, picolal.
Drake, (wild,) catzhâa.
Drawers, ex, humpel, sacech.
Drink, ukil.
Drop, chibaloc, can-nohol.
Dropsy, zot, chupil.
Dumb, tot.
Dumbness, totil.
Eagle, coot.
Ear, leexicên.
Early, matukin.
East, lakin.
Earthen dish, xamah.
Earthquake, cicilan, cicilancal.
Eat, (bread,) hantachouaj.
Egg, hue, cel.
Elbow, cué.
Embroider, chuy.
Enchanter, ahez, ahcunyha, ahcunal.
Ennui, tukolal.
Enter, ocol.
Entrails, hobnel, tzuc.
Eye-lash, matzab.
Eye-lid, pachich.
Eyes, ouich, or ych.
Fair, kinic.
To Fall, nenel.
Family, balnaïl, cuchteïl.
Fan, ual, picit.
Far, naach.
Fast, tumut, hana.
Fat, yek, yekil.
Father, hachyum.
Fear, zablemotal.
Feather, kukum.
Feebleness, tzemil.
Female, chupal.
Fever, chacauil, chocuil.
Fever, (intermittent,) yaxcal.
Fiction, iktili, iktilican.
Fields, hotoch.
Fight, tock.
Fingers, jalkab.
Finger, (middle,) chumuckab.
——, (ring,) ahoïpit.
Fire, kak.
Firewood, zi.
Fish, (lake,) hulum.
——, (peculiar to America,) tzan.
To Fish, tchoukaï.
Flame of fire, leↄka.
Flatulency, baalanik.
Flea, chic.
Flint, tock.
Flux, xaankik.
Foot and leg, oc.
Fore-finger, tuchub.
Foreigner, nachiluinic, ↄul.
Forest, kax.
Forehead, chi-lec.
Forgetfulness, tumbobal.
Fornication, pakkeban.
Foundation, ↄec, ↄecil.
Fraud, tabzah.
Fresh, (a thing,) ziz.
Froth, (scum,) om.
Gall, ka, kha, kah.
Giant, ahuanchac.
Girl, tchoupal.
Glow-worm, cocaï.
Goat, chupul, yuc.
God, Kù.
Godfather, yumilan, yeyum.
Godmother, naylan, naylah.
Gold, kantakin.
Gossip, etyum, yumlàh.
Gravel, kaluix, kataczah, kazab.
Great, nohoch, mapal, nuc.
Grief, okomolal.
Groin, heh, mah.
Gum, chunco.
Gutter, ocoyhaa, oc.
——, (sewer,) beelhaa, yachhaa.
Hale, bat.
Half, tancoh.
Hammock, yaabkaan.
Hamper, baas.
Hands, kab.
Hand-worm, pech.
Hare, (two species,) halu, tzub.
Hat, pooc.
Hatred, uyah.
Head, hoot, pol.
Headache, kuxpolil, yapolil.
Hedge-hog, kixpachok.
Heart, puzcical.
To Heat, kilcab.
Heaven, caan.
Heel, toucuy, chol.
Hen, chcach.
Hermaphrodite, hazakam, cobol.
Hern, bac-haa-zacboc.
Hiccough, toucub.
Hip, bobox.
Honey, cab.
Honey bear, zambhol.
Hope, alabolal.
Horse, tzot, tzotzel.
Host, ula.
Hot, chocouhàa.
House, na, otoch.
——, (stone,) nocac.
Humanity, uinicil.
Hump-backed, ppuz, buz.
Hunger, uüh.
To Hunt, tzonaï.
Husband, ichambil.
Image, vimba.
Imagination, ↄüolâl.
Incest, onelbilkeban.
Inconstancy, hebolal.
Industry, ytzatil.
Infant, hcho, schuchul.
Infirmity, kohanil, chapaïl.
Intention, olil.
Intestine, zal.
Itch, uech.
Jar, (large,) calamacat.
Jaws, camach.
Jewel, ↄipit, kab.
Jug, buleb, zuleb.
Kidneys, yz.
To Kill, cimzah.
To Kiss, machü, ↄuↄ.
Knee, pix.
Ladder-step, ↄac, ↄacal.
Languor, kohanil, chapaïl.
Lead, tau.
League, luub.
To Learn, cambal.
Learning, miatzil.
Left, ↄic.
Level ground, poctchê.
Lie, tuz.
Light, zaz, zazil, zalilil.
Lightning, lemba, lembaïl.
License, zipitolal.
Lime, taan.
Linen, nok.
——, (dirty,) cicinok.
——, (clean,) yamaxihutnok.
Lion, (wild,) kancoh.
——, (white,) ↄacek. [bo, aï.
——, and Leopard, coh, chac-
Liver, tamnel.
Living, ahcuxan.
Lizard, ixmemech, xzeluoh.
——, (kind of,) huh.
Louse, uc.
Love, yecunah.
Madam, colel.
Madness, cooïl.
Man, uinic.
Man, (handsome,) chichcelem.
Market, kinic.
Marrow, ↄubac.
Mask, kohob.
Mat, (rush,) poop.
Mature, takin.
Measles, uzankak.
Meat, baak.
Melancholy, ppoolcmolal, tzemolal.
Memory, kehlaï.
Menses, ilmah-u.
Midnight, tantchoumoukacab.
Midwife, etnaa, nalha.
Milk, ucabim.
Mirror, nen.
Mist, yeeb.
Mole, ba.
Monkey, maax.
Month, ilaxnoc.
Moon, umpekin.
Moth, xthuyul.
Mother, hachnàa.
Mould, ↄalâb.
Mouth, cha, xi.
Murmur, campectzil.
Nail, (claw,) laxquetlac.
Near, nasaan.
Necklace, kanthixal.
Negligence, nayolal.
Negro, ekbok.
Nerve, xich.
Night, acâb, acbil.
Nipple, polim.
No, ma.
Nobody, mamac.
Noise, hum.
Noon, tantchoumoukin.
North, nohol.
Nose, nü.
Nostrils, holnil.
Nothing, mabal.
Obstinacy, nolmaïl.
Oil, tzatza, kaabil.
Ornament, cen, cenanil tap.
Outcry, auac.
Owl, icim.
Pain, ya, yoïl, kinàm.
——, (in the side,) auat-mô.
——, (mouth, teeth,) chacnik.
——, (breast,) tuzik.
Palace, ahauna, papilote.
Palate, mabcaan.
Palm of the hand, tancab.
Palm-tree, haaz.
Pantaloons, humpel ech.
Partridge, num.
Paste, takab, takeb.
Pavement, taztunichil.
Peg, ecbe.
Pearl, yaxiltun.
Pen, cheb.
Period of time, katum, kin-katun.
Petticoat, paytem, bon.
Physician, ahↄuyah.
Pigeon, zacpacal.
Piles, kabak, ixmumuz.
Pillow, kumchuy.
Pitcher, ppul.
Poet, hiktan.
Poison, uay, yaah, tenↄac.
Porridge-pot, cucul, yaan.
Pride, nonohbaïl.
To Produce, alan, alan cal.
Promise, zebchiil.
Provisions, nech.
Pulse, tipontip.
Pupil, (of the eye,) nenel, ich.
To Purge, kalab, halabↄac.
Putrefaction, tuil, hio.
Quinsy, zippcal, yacalil.
Rabbit, thul, muy.
Rain, chuluhhàa.
Rainbow, cheel.
Remedy, ↄaↄacil.
To Retake, mol.
Rib, chalat.
Right, noh.
Ring, ↄipit, kab.
Rivulet, haltun.
Rust, yx, akzah.
Saliva, tub, baba, cilbaïl.
Salt, taab.
Salutation, peul, peultah.
Scorpion, zinan.
Scull, tzec, tzekil.
Sea, kanaps.
Serpent, kanal, can, ixkukilcan.
To Sew, embroider, chuy.
Shade, booy.
Shark, ahcanxok.
Shin-bone, tul, tzelec.
Shirt, xicul.
To Shirt, buuc.
Shoes, chanal.
Shoulder, celembal, pach.
Side, tzel.
To Sing, kaay.
Sir, yum.
Skeleton, tzitzak.
Skin, (human,) oth, othel.
——, (animal,) kcuel.
To sleep, uenel.
Sleep, uenel.
Sleeve, teppliz, tzotiz.
Small-pox, kake.
Snails, mexenhubo.
Soil, bitun.
Sorcerer, ahez, ahcunyha, ahcunal
Sore, pomaetel.
Sore eyes, ya ichil.
Soul, pixan.
South, chanian.
Sparrow-hawk, hii.
Spider, leum.
Spine, chacpich.
——, (animal,) zibnel.
Spot, yihul.
Squirrel, cuc, cuceb.
Star, eck.
Steps, eb.
——, (stone,) ebtun.
——, (wood,) ebché.
Stomach, ychpuzical.
Stone, tunieh.
Stool, (cricket,) yculxec.
Stove, mohob, mob.
Stranger, omon.
Stud, moo.
To Suck, ↄuuc.
Sugar, momcab, mom.
Sun, khin.
Swallow, cuzân.
To Sweep, miz.
Sweat, keluc.
Sweet, chahuc, chaku.
Swim, tahal, tahalhaa.
To Swoon, nuniltameaz, haↄik.
Swooning, zalalol, zaccimil, thoyol.
Sword, (sabre,) haↄab.
Table, mayac.
——, (of stone,) mayac tun.
To Take, chaa.
Tarantula, am.
Tear, kabich, yatilich.
Teeth, (grinders,) cham.
Tempest, chacakal.
Temple, machunhach.
Thigh, chacbacal.
Thirst, ukah, ukhil.
Thorn, hiix.
Throat, cal.
Throne, nac ↄam.
Thumb, naakab.
Thunder, humchac, peechac.
Thunderbolt, uhaↄchac.
Thus, or so, beï.
Tiger, balam, chacekel.
Timidity, oyomolal.
Toad, much.
Tobacco, kutz.
To-day, béjélaé, or bechlaé.
To-morrow, saamal.
Tooth, co.
——, (canine,) ↄay.
Tortilla, (corn bread,) pakach, pecuah.
Tortoise, ack.
To Touch, tal.
Treason, kubilah.
Treasure, tzoy.
Tree, (trunk of,) out-choun-tchai.
Tripe, choch.
Trough, poxché, pokoatché.
Turtle, ae.
Understanding, naat.
Vanity, pezbaïl.
Vein, ychac.
Vengeance, tohbaïl.
Venom, soliman, chihimtie.
Vial, ppool, choolax.
Village, cacab.
Vinegar, zuↄci, pahcii.
Viper, ahaucan.
Virgin, zuhuy.
Voice, than.
Vow, ppaachii.
Vulture, (species of,) ouxcil.
To Wake, ximbal.
To Walk, ximbalni.
Wall, pak.
——, (enclosure,) tulum, paa.
Wallet, mucuc, chim.
War, katun, bateil, ppizba.
Wart, ax, chuc.
Washerwoman, humpel, schpo, xpo.
Washing hands, pocolkab.
Water, haa.
Wax, cib.
Weasel, zabin.
To Weep, okol.
Well, cheen.
West, chikin.
Wheel, cocoↄ.
To Whistle, chouchoub.
Wild-boar, ac.
Wild-cat, akxux, zacoboly.
Wild-hog, citân.
Wild-turkey, ahau, cutz.
Will, olha.
Wind, (blustering,) ciz.
Wing, xik.
Wolf, cabcoh.
Woman, or wife, attambil.
Wood-louse, (Indian,) xkuluck.
To Work, meyach.
World, jocokab.
Wound, cimil, centanil.
Wrist, kalcab.
Year, oumpe-hab.
Yes, matan la.
Yesterday, joolgé, or hooljé.
Youth, paal, baac.
Numbers to One Hundred
1, hun.
2, ca
3, ox
4, can.
5, ho.
6, uac.
7, uuc.
8, uaxac.
9, bolon.
10, lahun.
11, buluc.
12, lahca.
13, oxahun.
14, canlahun.
15, holhun.
16, uaclahun.
17, uuclahun.
18, uaxaclahun.
19, bolonlahun.
20, hunkal.
21, huntukal.
22, catukal.
23, oxtukal.
24, cantukal.
25, hotukal.
26, uactukal.
27, uuctukal.
28, uaxactukal.
29, bolontukal.
30, lahucakal.
31, buluctukal.
32, cahcatukal.
33, oxlahutukal.
34, canlahutukal.
35, holucukal.
36, uaclahutukal.
37, uuclahutukal.
38, uaxaclahutukal.
39, bolonlahutukal.
40, cakal.
41, huntuyoxkal.
42, catuyoxkal.
43, oxtuyoxkal.
44, cantuyoxkal.
45, hotuyoxkal.
46, uactuyoxkal.
47, uuctuyoxkal.
48, uaxactuyoxkal.
49, bolontuyoxkal.
50, lahuyoxkal.
51, buluctuyoxkal.
52, lahcatuyoxkal.
53, oxlahutuyoxkal.
54, canlahutuyoxkal.
55, holhuyoxkal.
56, uaclahutuyoxkal.
57, uuclahutuyoxkal.
58, uaxaclahutuyoxkal.
59, bolonlahutuyoxkal.
60, oxkal.
61, huntucankal.
62, catucankal.
63, oxtucankal.
64, cantucankal.
65, hotucankal.
66, uactucankal.
67, uuctucankal.
68, uaxactucankal.
69, bolontucankal.
70, lahucankal.
71, buluctucankal.
72, lahcatucankal.
73, oxlahutucankal.
74, canlahutucankal.
75, holhucankal.
76, uaclahutucankal.
77, uuclahutucankal.
78, uaxaclahutucankal.
79, bolonlahutucankal.
80, cankal.
81, hutuyokal.
82, catuyokal.
83, oxtuyokal.
84, cantuyokal.
85, hotuyokal.
86, uactuyokal.
87, uuctuyokal.
88, uaxactuyokal.
89, bolontuyokal.
90, lahuyokal.
91, buluctuyokal.
92, lahcatuyokal.
93, oxlahutuyokal.
94, canlahutuyokal
95, holhuyokal.
96, uaclahutuyokal.
97, uuclahutuyokal.
98, uaxaclahutuyokal.
99, bolonlahutuyokal.
100, hokal.
Tradition of the Mexican Natives Respecting Their Migration From the North
In corroboration of Mr. Atwater’s opinion with respect to the gradual remove of the ancient people of the West toward Mexico, we subjoin what we have gathered from the Researches of Baron Humboldt on that point. See Helen Maria Williams’ translation of Humboldt’s Researches in America, vol. ii. p. 67; from which it appears the people inhabiting the vale of Mexico, at the time the Spaniards overran that country, were called Aztecs, or Aztecas; and were, as the Spanish history informs us, usurpers, having come from the north, from a country which they called Aztalan.
This country of Aztalan, Baron Humboldt says, “we must look for at least north of the forty-second degree of latitude.” He comes to this conclusion from an examination of the Mexican or Azteca manuscripts, which were made of a certain kind of leaves, and of skins prepared; on which an account in painted hieroglyphics, or pictures, was given of their migration from Aztalan to Mexico, and how long they halted at certain places; which, in the aggregate, amounts to “four hundred and sixteen years.”
The following names of places appear on their account of their journeyings, at which places they made more or less delay, and built towns, forts, tumuli, &c.:—
1st. A place of Humiliation and a place of Grottoes. It would seem at this place they were much afflicted and humbled, but in what manner is not related; and also at this place, from the term grottoes, that it was a place of caverns and dens, probably where they at first hid and dwelt, till they built a town and cleared the ground. Here they built the places which they called Tocalco and Oztatan.
2d journey. They stopped at a place of fruit-trees; probably meaning, as it was further south, a place where nature was abundant in nuts, grapes, and wild fruit-trees. Here they built a mound or tumulus; and, in their language, it is called a Teocali.
3d journey; when they stopped at a place of herbs, with broad leaves; probably meaning a place where many succulent plants grew, denoting a good soil, which invited them to pitch their tents here.
4th journey; when they came to a place of human bones; where they, either during their stay, had battles with each other, or with some enemy; or they may have found them already there, the relics of other nations before them; for, according to Humboldt, this migration of the Aztecas took place A. D. 778; so that other nations certainly had preceded them, also from the north.
5th journey; they came to a place of eagles.
6th journey; to a place of precious stones and minerals.
7th journey; to a place of spinning, where they manufactured clothing of cotton, barks, or of something proper for clothing of some sort, and mats of rushes and feathers.
8th journey; they came to another place of eagles, called the Eagle Mountain: or, in their own language, Quauktli Tepec: Tepec, says Humboldt, in the Turkish language, is the word for mountain; which two words are so near alike, tepec, and tepe, that it would seem almost an Arab word, or a word used by the Turks.
9th journey; when they came to a place of walls, and the seven grottoes; which shows the place had been inhabited before, and these seven grottoes were either caves in the earth, or were made in the side of some mountain, by those who had preceded them.
10th journey; when they came to a place of thistles, sand, and vultures.
11th journey; when they came to a place of Obsidian mirrors, which is much the same with that of ising-glass, scientifically called mica membranacea. This mineral substance is frequently found in the tumuli of the west, and is called by the Mexicans the shining god. The obsidian stone, however, needs polishing before it will answer as a mirror.
12th journey; came to a place of water, probably some lake or beautiful fountains, which invited their residence there, on the account not only of the water, but for fishing and game.
13th journey; they came to the place of the Divine Monkey, called, in their own language, Teozomoco. In the most ancient Hebrew, this animal is called K-oph, Kooph, and Kuphon: in the Arabic, which is similar to the Hebrew, it is called K-ha-noos, Khanassa, and Chanass; all of which words bear a strong resemblance to the Mexican Te-oz-o-moco, especially to the Arabic Khanoos. Here, it would seem, they set up the worship of the monkey, or baboon, as the ancient Egyptians are known to have done. This animal is found in Mexico, according to Humboldt.
14th journey; when they came to a high mountain, probably with table lands on it, which they called Chopaltepec, or mountain of locusts: “A place,” says Baron Humboldt, “celebrated for the magnificent view from the top of this hill;” which, it appears, is in the Mexican country, and probably not far from the vale of Mexico, where they finally and permanently rested.
15th journey; when they came to the vale of Mexico; they here met with the prodigy, or fulfilment of the prophecy, or oracle, predicted at their outset from the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemacan; which was (see Humboldt, vol. ii. p. 185), that the migrations of the Aztecs should not terminate till the chiefs of the nation should meet with an eagle, perched on a cactus-tree, or prickly pear; at such a place they might found a city. This was, as their bull-hide books inform us, in the vale of Mexico.
We have related this account of the Azteca migration from the country of Aztalan, Huehuetlapallan, and Amaquemacan, from the regions of north latitude forty-two degrees, merely to show that the country, provinces, or districts, so named in their books, must have been the country of Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois, with the whole region thereabout; for these are not far from the very latitude named by Humboldt as the region of Aztalan, &c.
The western country is now distinguished by the general name of the “lake country;” and why? because it is a country of lakes; and for the same reason it was called by the Mexicans Azteca, by the Indians, Aztalans, because in their language ATL is water, from which Aztalan is doubtless a derivative, as well also as their own name as a nation or title, which was Astecas, or people of the lakes.
This account, derived from the Mexicans since their reduction by the Spaniards, is gathered from the researches of learned travellers, who have, for the very purpose of learning the origin of the people of this country, penetrated not only into the forest retreats in the woods of Mexico, but into the mysteries of their hard language, their theology, philosophy, and astronomy. This account of their migration, as related above, is corroborated by the tradition of the Wyandot Indians.
We come to a knowledge of this tradition by the means of a Mr. William Walker, some time Indian agent for our government. A pamphlet, published in 1823, by Frederick Falley, of Sandusky, contains Mr. Walker’s account, which is as follows: A great many hundred years ago, the ancient inhabitants of America, who were the authors of the great works of the West, were driven away from their country and possessions by barbarous and savage hordes of warriors, who came from the north and north-east, before whose power and skill in war they were compelled to flee, and went to the south.
After having been there many hundred years, a runner came back into the same country whence the ancient people had been driven, which we suppose is the very country of Aztalan, or the region of the Western States, bringing the intelligence that a dreadful beast had landed on their coast along the sea, which was spreading among them havoc and death, by means of fire and thunder; and that it would no doubt travel all over the country, for the same purpose of destruction. This beast, whose voice was like thunder, and whose power to kill was like fire, we have no doubt represents the cannon and small arms of the Spaniards, when they first commenced the murder of the people of South America.—[Priest.]
Traits of the Mosaic History Found Among the Azteca Nations
The tradition commences with an account of the deluge, as they had preserved it in books made of the buffalo and deer skin, on which account there is more certainty than if it had been preserved by mere oral tradition, handed down from father to son.
They begin by painting, or, as we would say, by telling us that Noah, whom they call Tezpi, saved himself, with his wife, whom they call Xochiquetzal, on a raft or canoe. Is not this the ark? The raft or canoe rested on or at the foot of a mountain, which they call Colhuacan. Is not this Ararat? The men born after this deluge were born dumb. Is not this the confusion of language at Babel? A dove from the top of a tree distributes languages to them in the form of an olive leaf. Is not this the dove of Noah, which returned with that leaf in her mouth, as related in Genesis? They say, that on this raft, besides Tezpi and his wife, were several children, and animals, with grain, the preservation of which was of importance to mankind. Is not this in almost exact accordance with what was saved in the ark with Noah, as stated in Genesis?
When the Great Spirit, Tezcatlipoca, ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from his raft a vulture, which never returned, on account of the great quantities of dead carcasses which it found to feed upon. Is not this the raven of Noah, which did not return when it was sent out the second time, for the very reason here assigned by the Mexicans? Tezpi sent other birds, one of which was the humming-bird; this bird alone returned, holding in its beak a branch covered with leaves. Is not this the dove? Tezpi, seeing that fresh verdure now clothed the earth, quitted his raft near the mountain of Colhuacan. Is not this an allusion to Ararat of Asia? They say the tongues which the dove gave to mankind, were infinitely varied; which, when received, they immediately dispersed. But among them there were fifteen heads or chiefs of families, which were permitted to speak the same language, and these were the Taltecs, the Aculhucans, and Azteca nations, who embodied themselves together, which was very natural, and travelled, they knew not where, but at length arrived in the country of Aztalan, or the lake country in America.
Among the vast multitude of painted representations found by Humboldt, on the books of the natives, made also frequently of prepared skins of animals, were delineated all the leading circumstances and history of the deluge, of the fall of man, and of the seduction of the woman by the means of the serpent, the first murder as perpetrated by Cain, on the person of his brother Abel.
Among the different nations, according to Humboldt, who inhabited Mexico, were found paintings which represented the deluge, or the flood of Tezpi. The same person among the Chinese is called Fohi and Yu-ti, which is strikingly similar in sound to the Mexican Tezpi, in which they show how he saved himself and his wife, in a bark, or some say, in a canoe, others on a raft, which they call, in their language, a huahuate.
Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which was the humming-bird; this bird alone returned again to the boat, holding in its beak a branch, covered with leaves. Tezpi now knowing that the earth was dry, being clothed with fresh verdure, quitted his bark near the mountain Colhucan, or Ararat. A tradition of the same fact, the deluge, is also found among the Indians of the Northwest. I received (says a late traveller) the following account from a chief of one of the tribes, in his own words, in the English:—“An old man, live great while ago, he wery good man, he have three son. The Great Spirit tell him, go make raft—build wigwam on top: for he make it rain wery much. When this done, Great Spirit say, put in two of all the creatures, then take sun, moon—all the stars, put them in—get in himself, with his Equa, (wife,) children, shut door, all dark outside. Then it rain much hard, many days. When they stay there long time—Great Spirit say, old man, go out. So he take diving animal, sa goy see if find the earth: so he went, come back, not find anything. Then he wait few days—send out mushquash, see what he find. When he come back, brought some mud in he paw; old man wery glad; he tell mushquash, you wery good, long this world stand, be plenty mushquash, no man ever kill you all. Then few days more, he take wery prety bird, send him out, see what it find; that bird no come back: so he send out one white bird, that come back, have grass in he mouth. So old man know water going down. The Great Spirit say, old man, let sun, moon, stars go out, old man too. He go out, raft on much big mountain, when he see prety bird, he send out first, eating dead things—he say, bird, you do no right, when me send, you no come back, you must be black, you no prety bird any more—you always eat bad things So it was black.”
The purity of these traditions is evidence of two things: first, that the book of Genesis, as written by Moses, is not, as some have imagined, a cunningly devised fable, as these Indians cannot be accused of Christian nor of Jewish priestcraft, their religion being of another cast. And second, that the continents of America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, were anciently united, so that the earlier nations came directly over after the confusion of the ancient language and dispersion—on which account its purity has been preserved more than among the more wandering tribes of the old continents.
As favoring this idea of their (the Mexicans) coming immediately from the region of the tower of Babel, their tradition goes on to inform us, that the tongues distributed by this bird were infinitely various, and dispersed over the earth; but that it so happened that fifteen heads of families were permitted to speak the same language. These travelled till they came to a country which they called Aztalan, supposed to be in the regions of the now United States, according to Humboldt. The word Aztalan signifies, in their language, water, or a country of much water. Now, no country on the earth better suits this appellation than the western country, on account of the vast number of lakes found there, and it is even, by us, called the lake country.
It is evident that the Indians are not the first people who found their way to this country. Among these ancient nations are found many traditions corresponding to the accounts given by Moses respecting the creation, the fall of man by the means of a serpent, the murder of Abel by his brother, &c.; all of which are denoted in their paintings, as found by the earlier travellers among them, since the discovery of America by Columbus, and carefully copied from their books of prepared hides, which may be called parchment, after the manner of the ancients of the earliest ages. We are pleased when we find such evidence, as it goes to the establishment of the truth of the historical parts of the Old Testament, evidence so far removed from the skeptic’s charge of priestcraft here among the unsophisticated nations of the woods of America.
Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, says that among the Chiapanese Indians was found an ancient manuscript in the language of that country, made by the Indians themselves, in which it was said, according to their ancient tradition, that a certain person, named Votan, was present at that great building, which was made by order of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven: that then every people was given their language, and that Votan himself was charged by God to make the division of the lands of Anahuac—so Noah divided the earth among his sons. Votan may have been Noah, or a grandson of his.
Of the ancient Indians of Cuba, several historians of America relate, that when they were interrogated by the Spaniards concerning their origin, they answered, they had heard from their ancestors, that God created the heavens and the earth, and all things; that an old man, having foreseen the deluge with which God designed to chastise the sins of men, built a large canoe and embarked in it with his family, and many animals; that when the inundation ceased, he sent out a raven, which, because it found food suited to its nature to feed on, never returned to the canoe; that he then sent out a pigeon, which soon returned, bearing a branch of the Hoba tree, a certain fruit-tree of America, in its mouth; that when the old man saw the earth dry, he disembarked, and having made himself wine of the wood grape, he became intoxicated and fell asleep; that then one of his sons made ridicule of his nakedness, and that another son piously covered him; that, upon waking, he blessed the latter and cursed the former. Lastly, these islanders held that they had their origin from the accursed son, and therefore went almost naked; that the Spaniards, as they were clothed, descended perhaps from the other.
Many of the nations of America, says Clavigero, have the same tradition, agreeing nearly to what we have already related. It was the opinion of this author, that the nations who peopled the Mexican empire belonged to the posterity of Naphtuhim—(the same, we imagine, with Japheth;) and that their ancestors, having left Egypt not long after the confusion of the ancient language, travelled towards America, crossing over on the isthmus, which it is supposed once united America with the African continent, but since has been beaten down by the operation of the waters of the Atlantic on the north, and of the Southern ocean on the south, or by the operation of earthquakes.
Now we consider the comparative perfection of the preservation of this Bible account as an evidence that the people among whom it was found must have settled in this country at a very early period of time after the flood, and that they did not wander any more, but peopled the continent, cultivating it, building towns and cities, after their manner, the vestiges of which are so abundant to this day; and on this account, viz., their fixedness, their traditionary history was not as liable to become lost, as it would have undoubtedly been had they wandered, as many other nations of the old world have done. As evidence of the presence of a Hindoo population in the southern, as well as the western parts of North America, we bring the Mexican traditions respecting some great religious teacher who once came among them. These say, that a wonderful personage, whom they name Quetzalcoatl, appeared among them, who was a white and bearded man. This person assumed the dignity of acting as a priest and legislator, and became the chief of a religious sect, which, like the Songasis, and the Buddhists of Hindostan, inflicted on themselves the most cruel penances. He introduced the custom of piercing the lips and ears, and lacerating the rest of the body, with the prickles of the agave and leaves, the thorns of the cactus, and of putting reeds into the wounds, in order that the blood might be seen to trickle more copiously. In all this, says Humboldt, we seem to behold one of those Rishi, hermits of the Ganges, whose pious austerity is celebrated in the books of the Hindoos.
Respecting this white and bearded man, much is said in their tradition, recorded in their books of skin; and among other things, that after a long stay with them he suddenly left them, promising to return again in a short time, to govern them and renew their happiness. This person resembles, very strongly, in his promise to return again, the behavior of Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, who, on his departure from Lacedæmon, bound all the citizens under an oath, both, for themselves and posterity, that they would neither violate nor abolish his laws till his return; and soon after, in the Isle of Crete, he put himself to death, so that his return became impossible.
It was the posterity of this man whom the unhappy Montezuma thought he recognised in the soldiers of Cortez, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico. “We know,” said the unhappy monarch, in his first interview with the Spanish general, “by our books, that myself, and those who inhabit this country, are not natives, but strangers, who came from a great distance. We know, also, that the chief who led our ancestors hither returned, for a certain time, to his primitive country, and thence came back to seek those who were here established, who after a while returned again, alone. We always believed that his descendants would one day come to take possession of this country. Since you arrive from that region where the sun rises, I cannot doubt but that the king who sends you is our natural master.”
Humboldt says that the Azteca tribes left their country, Aztalan, in the year of our Lord 544; and wandered to the south or southwest, coming at last to the vale of Mexico. It would appear from this view, that as the nations of Aztalan, with their fellow nations, left vast works, and a vast extent of country, apparently in a state of cultivation, with cities and villages, more in number than three thousand, as Breckenridge supposed, they must, therefore, have settled here long before the Christian era.
And this Quetzalcoatl, a celebrated minister of these opinions, appears to have been the first who announced the religion of the east among the people of the west. There was also one other minister, or Brahmin, who appeared among the Mozca tribes in South America, whom they named Bochica. This personage taught the worship of the sun; and, if we were to judge, we should pronounce him a missionary of the Confucian system, a worshipper of fire, which was the religion of the ancient Persians, of whose country Confucius was a native. This also is evidence that the first inhabitants of America came here at a period near the flood, long before that worship was known, or they would have had a knowledge of this Persian worship, which was introduced by Bochica among the American nations, which, it seems, they had not, until taught by this man.
Bochica, it appears, became a legislator among those nations, and changed the form of their government to a form, the construction of which, says Baron Humboldt, bears a strong analogy to the governments of Japan and Thibet, on account of the pontiffs holding in their hands both the secular and the spiritual reins. In Japan, an island on the east of Asia, or rather many islands, which compose the Japanese empire, is found a religious sect, styled Sinto, who do not believe in the sanguinary rites of shedding either human blood, or that of animals, to propitiate their gods; they even abstain from animal food, and detest bloodshed, and will not touch any dead body.—(Morse’s Geography, p. 523.)
There is in South America a whole nation who eat nothing but vegetables, and who hold in abhorrence those who feed on flesh.—(Humboldt, p. 200.)
Such a coincidence in the religion of nations can scarcely be supposed to exist, unless they are of one origin. Therefore, from what we have related above, and a few pages back, it is clear, both from the tradition of the Aztecas, who lived in the western regions before they went to the south, and from the fact that nations on the Asiatic side of Bhering’s Strait have come annually over the strait to fight the nations of the northwest, that we, in this way, have given conclusive and satisfactory reasons why, in the western mounds and tumuli, are found evident tokens of the presence of a Hindoo population; or, at least, of nations influenced by the superstitions of that people, through the means of missionaries of those castes, and that they did not bring those opinions and ceremonies with them when they first left Asia, after the confusion of the antediluvian language, as led on by their fifteen chiefs; till, by some means, and at some period, they finally found this country—not by the way of Bhering’s Strait, but by some nearer course.
Perhaps a few words on the supposed native country of Quetzalcoatl may be allowed; who, as we have stated, is reported to have been a white and bearded man, by the Mexican Aztecas. There is a vast range of islands on the northeast of Asia, in the Pacific, situated not very far from Bhering’s Strait, in latitude between forty and fifty degrees north. The inhabitants of these islands, when first discovered, were found to be far in advance in the arts and civilization, and a knowledge of government, of their continental neighbors, the Chinese and Tartars. The island of Jesso, in particular, is of itself an empire, comparatively, being very populous, and its people are also highly polished in their manners. The inhabitants may be denominated white—their women especially, whom Morse, in his geography of the Japan, Jesso, and other islands in that range, says expressly are white, fair, and ruddy. Humboldt says they are a bearded race of men, like Europeans.
It appears that the ancient government of these islands, especially that of Japan, which is neighbor to that of Jesso, was in the hands of spiritual monarchs and pontiffs till the seventeenth century. As this was the form of government introduced by Quetzalcoatl, when he first appeared among the Azteca tribes, which we suppose was in the country of Aztalan, or Western States, may it not be conjectured that he was a native of some of those islands, who in his wanderings had found his way hither, on errands of benevolence; as it is said in the tradition respecting him, that he preached peace among men, and would not allow any other offering to the divinity than the first fruits of the harvest, which doctrine was in character with the mild and amiable manners of the inhabitants of those islands. And that peculiar and striking record, found painted on the Mexican skin-books, which describes him to have been a white and bearded man, is our other reason for supposing him to have been a native of some of these islands, and most probably Jesso, rather than any other country.
The inhabitants of these islands originated from China, and with them undoubtedly carried the Persian doctrines of the worship of the sun and fire; consequently, we find it taught to the people of Aztalan and Mexico, by such as visited them from China or the islands above named; as it is clear the sun was not the original object of adoration in Mexico, but rather the power which made the sun. So Noah worshipped.
Their traditions also recognise another important chief, who led the Azteca tribes first to the country of Aztalan, long before the appearance of Quetzalcoatl or Bochica among them. This great leader they name Tecpaltzin, and doubtless allude to the time when they first found their way to America, and settled in the western region.—[Priest.]
Origin of Fire-Worship
For many ages the false religions of the East had remained stationary; but in this period, magianism received considerable strength from the writings of Zoroaster. He was a native of Media. He pretended to a visit in heaven, where God spoke to him out of a fire. This fire he pretended to bring with him on his return. It was considered holy—the dwelling of God. The priests were for ever to keep it, and the people were to worship before it. He caused fire-temples everywhere to be erected, that storms and tempests might not extinguish it. As he considered God as dwelling in the fire, he made the sun to be his chief residence, and therefore the primary object of worship. He abandoned the old system of two gods, one good and the other evil, and taught the existence of one Supreme, who had under him a good and evil angel—the immediate authors of good and evil. To gain reputation, he retired into a cave, and there lived a long time a recluse, and composed a book called the Zend-Avesta, which contains the liturgy to be used in the fire-temples, and the chief doctrines of his religion. His success in propagating his system was astonishingly great. Almost all the eastern world, for a season, bowed before him. He is said to have been slain, with eighty of his priests, by a Scythian prince, whom he attempted to convert to his religion.
It is manifest that he derived his whole system of God’s dwelling in the fire, from the burning bush, out of which God spake to Moses. He was well acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures. He gave the same history of the creation and deluge that Moses had given, and inserted a great part of the Psalms of David into his writings. The Mehestani, his followers, believed in the immortality of the soul, in future rewards and punishments, and in the purification of the body by fire; after which they would be united to the good.—(Marsh’s Ecclesiastical History, p. 78.) From the same origin, that of the burning bush, it is altogether probable the worship of fire, for many ages, obtained over the whole habitable earth; and is still to be traced in the funeral piles of the Hindoos, the beacon-fires of the Scotch and Irish, the periodical midnight fires of the Mexicans, and the council-fires of the North American Indians, around which they dance.
A custom among the natives of New Mexico, as related by Baron Humboldt, is exactly imitated by a practice found still in some parts of Ireland, among the descendants of the ancient Irish.
At the commencement of the month of November, the great fire of Sumhuin is lit up, all the culinary fires in the kingdom being first extinguished, as it was deemed sacrilege to awaken the winter’s social flame except by a spark snatched from this sacred fire; on which account, the month of November is called, in the Irish language, Sumhuin.
To this day, the inferior Irish look upon bonfires as sacred; they say their prayers walking round them, the young dream upon their ashes, and the old take this fire to light up their domestic hearths, imagining some secret undefinable excellence connected with it.—[Priest.]
Great Stone Calendar of the Mexicans
This stone was found near the site of the present city of Mexico, buried some feet beneath the soil, on which is engraven a great number of hieroglyphics, signifying the divisions of time, the motions of the heavenly bodies, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with reference to the feasts and sacrifices of the Mexicans, and is called by Humboldt the Mexican Calendar, in relief, on basalt, a kind of stone.
This deservedly celebrated historiographer and antiquarian has devoted a hundred pages and more of his octavo work, entitled “Researches in America,” in describing the similarity which exists between its representations of astrology, astronomy, and the divisions of time, and those of a great multitude of the nations of Asia—Chinese, Japanese, Calmucks, Mongols, Mantchaus, and other Tartar nations; the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Phœnicians, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and ancient Celtic nations of Europe. (See the American edition by Helen Maria Williams, vol. i.) The size of this stone was very great, being a fraction over twelve feet square, three feet in thickness, weighing twenty-four tons. It is of the kind of stone denominated trappean porphyry, of the blackish gray color.
The place where it was found was more than thirty miles from any quarry of the kind; from which we discover the ability of the ancient inhabitants not only to transport stones of great size, as well as the ancient Egyptians, in building their cities and temples of marble, but also to cut and engrave on stone, equal with the present age.
It was discovered in the vale of Mexico, in A. D. 1791, in the spot where Cortez ordered it to be buried, when, with his ferocious Spaniards, that country was devastated. That Spaniard universally broke to pieces all images of stone which came in his way, except such as were too large and strong to be quickly and easily thus affected. Such he buried, among which this sculptured stone was one. This was done to hide them from the sight of the natives, whose strong attachment, whenever they saw them, counteracted their conversion to the Roman Catholic religion.
The sculptured work on this stone is in circles; the outer one of all is a trifle over twenty-seven feet in circumference—from which the reader can have a tolerable notion of its size and appearance. The whole stone is intensely crowded with representations and hieroglyphics, arranged, however, in order and harmony, every way equal with any astronomical calendar of the present day. It is further described by Baron Humboldt, who saw and examined it on the spot:—
“The concentric circles, the numerous divisions and subdivisions engraven on this stone, are traced with mathematical precision. The more minutely the detail of this sculpture is examined, the greater the taste we find in the repetition of the same forms. In the centre of the stone is sculptured the celebrated sign nahuiolin-Tonatiuh, the Sun, which is surrounded by eight triangular radii. The god Tonatiuh, or the sun, is figured on this stone, opening his large mouth, armed with teeth, with the tongue protruded to a great length. This yawning mouth and protruded tongue is like the image of Kala, or, in another word, Time—a divinity of Hindostan. Its dreadful mouth, armed with teeth, is meant to show that the god Tonatiuh, or Time, swallows the world, opening a fiery mouth, devouring the years, months, and days, as fast as they come into being. The same image we find under the name of Moloch among the Phœnicians, some of the ancient inhabitants on the eastern side of the Mediterranean, from which very country there can be but little doubt America received a portion of its earliest inhabitants.” Hence a knowledge of the arts to great perfection, as found among the Mexicans, was thus derived. Humboldt says the Mexicans have evidently followed the Persians in the division of time, as represented on this stone. The Persians flourished one thousand years before Christ.
“The structure of the Mexican aqueducts leads the imagination at once to the shores of the Mediterranean.”—(Thomas’s Travels, p. 293.) The size, grandeur, and riches of the tumuli on the European and Asiatic sides of the Cimmerian strait (which unites the Black sea with the Archipelago, a part of the Mediterranean, the region of ancient Greece, where the capital of Turkey in Europe now stands, called Constantinople), “excite astonishing ideas of the wealth and power of the people by whom they were constructed.”
But whatever power, wealth, genius, magnitude of tumuli, mounds and pyramids are found about the Mediterranean—where the Egyptian, the Phœnician, the Persian, and the Greek, have displayed the monuments of this most ancient sort of antiquities—all, all is realized in North and South America, and doubtless under the influence of the same superstition and eras of time,— having crossed over, as before argued; and among the various aboriginal nations of South and North America, but especially the former, are undoubtedly found the descendants of the fierce Medes and Persians, and other warlike nations of the old world.
The discoveries of travellers in that country show, even at the present time, that the ancient customs in relation to securing their habitations with a wall still prevail. Towns in the interior of Africa, on the river Niger, of great extent, are found to be surrounded by walls of earth, in the same manner as those of the West in North America.
See the account as given by Richard Lander: “On the 4th of May, we entered a town of prodigious extent, fortified with three walls of little less than twenty miles in circuit, with ditches or moats between. This town, called Boo-hoo, is in the latitude of about eight degrees forty-three minutes north, and longitude five degrees and ten minutes east. On the 17th, we came to Roossa, which is a cluster of huts walled with earth.”
This traveller states that there is a kingdom in Africa called Yaorie, which is large, powerful, and flourishing, containing a city of prodigious extent. The wall surrounding it is of clay, very high, and in circuit between twenty and thirty miles. He mentions several other places, similarly enclosed by earth walls.
It is easy to perceive the resemblance between these walled towns in central Africa, and the remains of similar works in this country, America.—[Priest.]
Scientific Acquirements of Ancient Builders in the West
As it respects the scientific acquirements of the builders of the works in the West, now in ruins, Mr. Atwater says: “When thoroughly examined, they have furnished matter of admiration to all intelligent persons who have attended to the subject. Nearly all the lines of ancient works found in the whole country, where the form of the ground admits of it, are right ones, pointing to the four cardinal points. Where there are mounds enclosed, the gateways are most frequently on the east side of the works, towards the rising sun. Where the situation admits of it, in their military works, the openings are generally towards one or more of the cardinal points. From which it is supposed they must have had some knowledge of astronomy, or their structures would not, it is imagined, have been thus arranged. From these circumstances, also, we draw the conclusion, that the first inhabitants of America emigrated from Asia, at a period coeval with that of Babylon, for here it was that astronomical calculations were first made, 2234 years before Christ.
“These things could never have so happened, with such invariable exactness in almost all cases, without design. On the whole,” says Atwater, “I am convinced from an attention to many hundreds of these works, in every part of the West which I have visited, that their authors had a knowledge of astronomy.
“Our ancient works continued into Mexico, increasing in size and grandeur, preserving the same forms, and appear to have been put to the same uses. The form of our works is round, square, triangular, semicircular, and octangular, agreeing, in all these respects with those in Mexico. The first works built by the Mexicans were mostly of earth, and not much superior to the common ones on the Mississippi.” The same may be said of the works of this sort over the whole earth, which is the evidence that all alike belong to the first efforts of men in the very first ages after the flood.
“But afterwards temples were erected on the elevated squares, circles, &c., but were still, like ours, surrounded by walls of earth. These sacred places, in Mexico, were called ‘teocalli’ which in the vernacular tongue of the most ancient tribe of Mexicans, signifies ‘mansions of the gods.’ They included within their sacred walls, gardens, fountains, habitations of priests, temples, altars, and magazines of arms. This circumstance may account for many things which have excited some surprise among those who have hastily visited the works on Paint creek, at Portsmouth, Marietta, Circleville, Newark, &c.
“It is doubted by many to what use these works were put; whether they were used as forts, camps, cemeteries, altars, and temples; whereas they contained all these either within their walls or were immediately connected with them. Many persons cannot imagine why the works at the places above mentioned were so extensively complicated, differing so much in form, size, and elevation, among themselves.” But the solution is, undoubtedly, “they contained within them altars, temples, cemeteries, habitations of priests, gardens, wells, fountains, places devoted to sacred purposes of various kinds, and the whole of their warlike munitions, laid up in arsenals. These works were calculated for defence, and were resorted to in cases of the last necessity, where they fought with desperation. We are warranted in this conclusion, by knowing that these works are exactly similar to the most ancient now to be seen in Mexico, connected with the fact, that the Mexican works did contain within them all that we have stated.”—[Priest.]
Predilection of the Ancients to Pyramids
In those early ages of mankind, it is evident there existed an unaccountable ambition among the nations, seemingly to outdo each other in the height of their pyramids; for Humboldt mentions the pyramids of Porsenna, as related by Varro, styled the most learned of the Romans, who flourished about the time of Christ; and says there were at this place four pyramids, eighty meters in height, which is a fraction more than fifteen rods perpendicular altitude: the meter is a French measure, consisting of three feet three inches.
Not many years since was discovered, by some Spanish hunters, on descending the Cordilleras toward the Gulf of Mexico, in the thick forest, the pyramid of Papantla. The form of this teocalli or pyramid, which had seven stories, is more tapering than any other monument of this kind yet discovered, but its height is not remarkable, being but fifty-seven feet—its base but twenty-five feet on each side. However, it is remarkable on one account: it is built entirely of hewn stones, of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully shaped. Three stair-cases lead to its top, the steps of which were decorated with hieroglyphical sculpture and small niches, arranged with great symmetry. The number of these niches seems to allude to the 318 simple and compound signs of the days of their civil calendar. If so, this monument was erected for astronomical purposes. Besides, here is evidence of the use of metallic tools, in the preparation and building of this temple.
In those mounds were sometimes hidden the treasures of kings and chiefs, placed there in times of war and danger. Such was found to be the fact on opening the tomb of a Peruvian prince, when was discovered a mass of pure gold, amounting to 4,687,500 dollars.—(Humboldt’s Researches, vol. i. p. 92.)
There is, in Central America, to the south-east of the city of Cuernavaca, on the west declivity of Anahuac, an isolated hill, which, together with the pyramid raised on its top by the ancients of that country, amounts to thirty-five rods ten feet altitude. The ancient tower of Babel, around which the city of Babylon was afterward built, was a mere nothing compared with the gigantic work of Anahuac, being but twenty-four hundred feet square, which is one hundred and fifty rods, or nearly so; while the hill we are speaking of, partly natural and partly artificial, is at its base twelve thousand and sixty-six feet: this, thrown into rods, gives seven hundred and fifty-four, and into miles, is two and three eighths, wanting eight rods, which is five times greater than that of Babel.
This hill is a mass of rocks, to which the hand of man has given a regular conic form, and which is divided into five stories or terraces, each of which is covered with masonry. These terraces are nearly sixty feet in perpendicular height, one above the other, besides the artificial mound added at the top, making its height near that of Babel; besides, the whole is surrounded with a deep broad ditch, more than five times the circumference of the Babylonian tower.
We learn from Scripture that in the earliest times the temples of Asia, such as that of Baal-Berith, at Shechem, in Canaan, were not only buildings consecrated to worship, but also intrenchments in which the inhabitants of a city defended themselves in times of war; the same may be said of the Grecian temples, for the wall which formed the parabolas alone afforded an asylum to the besieged.—[Priest.]
The Remains of Cities
The remains of cities and towns of an ancient population exist everywhere on the coast of the Pacific, which agree in fashion with the works and ruins found along the Chinese coasts, exactly west from the western limits of North America; showing beyond all dispute that in ancient times the countries were known to each other, and voyages were reciprocally made. The style of their shipping was such as to be equal to voyages of that distance, and also sufficient to withstand stress of weather, even beyond vessels of the present times, on account of their great depth of keel and size.—[Priest.]
Ruins of the City of Otolum, Discovered in North America
“Some years ago, the Society of Geography, in Paris, offered a large premium for a voyage to Guatemala, and for a new survey of the antiquities of Yucatan and Chiapa, chiefly those fifteen miles from Palenque.”
“They were surveyed by Captain Del Rio, in 1787, an account of which was published in English in 1822. This account describes partly the ruins of a stone city, of no less dimensions than seventy-five miles in circuit, length thirty-two, and breadth twelve miles, full of palaces, monuments, statues, and inscriptions; one of the earliest seats of American civilization, about equal to Thebes of ancient Egypt.”
It is stated in the Family Magazine, Vol. I., p. 266, as follows: “Public attention has been recently excited respecting the ruins of an ancient city found in Guatemala. It would seem that these ruins are now being explored, and much curious and valuable matter in a literary and historical point of view is anticipated. We deem the present a most auspicious moment, now that the public attention is turned to the subject, to spread its contents before our readers, as an introduction to future discoveries during the researches now in progress.”
The following are some particulars, as related by Captain Del Rio, who partially examined them as above related, 1787: From Palenque, the last town northward in the province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa, taking a southwesterly direction, and ascending a ridge of high land that divides the kingdom of Guatemala from Yucatan, at the distance of six miles, is the little river Micol, whose waters flow in a westerly direction, and unite with the great river Tulija, which bends its course towards the province of Tabasco. Having passed Micol, the ascent begins; and at half a league, or a mile and a half, the traveller crosses a little stream called Otolum; from this point heaps of stone ruins are discovered, which render the roads very difficult for another half league, when you gain the height whereon the stone houses are situated, being still fourteen in number in one place, some more dilapidated than others, yet still having many of their apartments perfectly discernible.
Here is a rectangular area, three hundred yards in breadth by four hundred and fifty in length, which is a fraction over fifty-six rods wide, and eighty-four rods long, being, in the whole circuit, two hundred and eighty rods, which is three-fourths of a mile, and a trifle over. This area presents a plain at the base of the highest mountain forming the ridge. In the centre of this plain is situated the largest of the structures which has been as yet discovered among these ruins. It stands on a mound or pyramid twenty yards high, which is sixty feet, or nearly four rods in perpendicular altitude, which gives it a lofty and beautiful majesty, as if it were a temple suspended in the sky. This is surrounded by other edifices, namely, five to the northward, four to the southward, one to the southwest, and three to the eastward—fourteen in all. In all directions the fragments of other fallen buildings are seen extending along the mountain that stretches east and west either way from these buildings, as if they were the great temple of worship, or their government house, around which they built their city, and where dwelt their kings and officers of state. At this place was found a subterranean stone aqueduct, of great solidity and durability, which in its course passes beneath the largest building.
Let it be understood, this city of Otolum, the ruins of which are so immense, is in North, not South America, in the same latitude with the island of Jamaica, which is about eighteen degrees north of the equator, being on the highest ground between the northern end of the Caribbean sea and the Pacific ocean, where the continent narrows towards the isthmus of Darien, and is about eight hundred miles south of New Orleans.
The discovery of these ruins, and also of many others, equally wonderful, in the same country, is just commencing to arouse the attention of the schools of Europe, who hitherto have denied that America could boast of her antiquities. But these immense ruins are now being explored under the direction of scientific persons, a history of which, in detail, will be forthcoming doubtless, in due time; two volumes of which, in manuscript, we are informed, have already been written, and cannot but be received with enthusiasm by Americans.
By those deeply versed in the antiquities of past ages, it is contended that the first people who settled America came directly from Chaldea, immediately after the confusion of language at Babel.—(See Description of the Ruins of the American City, published in London, 1832, p. 33, by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera.) Whoever the authors of the city may have been, we seem to find, in their sculptured deities, the idolatry of even the Phœnicians, a people whose history goes back nearly to the flood, or to within a hundred and fifty years of that period.
It appears from some of the historical works of the Mexicans, written in pictures, which fell into the hands of the Spaniards, that there was found one which was written by Votan, who sets himself forth to be the third Gentile, (reckoning from the flood or family of Noah,) and lord of the Tapanahuasec, or the sacred drum. In the book above alluded to, Votan says that he saw the great house which was built by his grandfather, meaning the tower of Babel, which went up from the earth to the sky. In one of those picture books, the account is given by the Indian historian, whoever he was, or at whatever time he lived, that Votan had written it himself. He gives the account that he made no less than four voyages to this continent, conducting with him at one time seven families. He says that others of his family had gone away before himself, and that he was determined to travel till he should come to the root of heaven, the sky, (in the west,) in order to discover his relations the Culebras, or Snake people, and calls himself Culebra, (a snake,) and that he found them, and became their captain. He mentions the name of the town which his relation had built at first, which was Tezequil.
Agreeing with this account, it is found by exploring the ruins of this city, and its sculptures, that among a multitude of strange representations are found two which represent this Votan, on both continents. The continents are shown by being painted in two parallel squares, and standing on each is this Votan, showing his acquaintance with each of them. The pictures engraven on the stones which form the sides of the houses or temples of this ruined city, are a series of hieroglyphics, which show, beyond all doubt, that the era of its construction, and of the people who built it, excels in antiquity those of the ancient Greeks, the Romans, and the most celebrated nations of the old world, and is worthy of being compared even with the first progenitors of the Hebrews themselves, after the flood.—(See History of American City, as before quoted, p. 39.)
It is found that the gods of the ancient Egyptians, even Osiris, Apis, and Isis, are sculptured on the stones of this city, the worship of which passed from Egypt to many nations, and is found under many forms, but all traceable to the same original. We have examined the forms of the figures cut on the side of the famous Obelisk of seventy-two feet in height, brought not long since from Egypt, by the French government, and erected in Paris; and have compared them with some of the sculptured forms of men, found on the stones of this city, in which there is an exact correspondence in one remarkable particular. On the obelisk is represented a king or god seated on a throne, holding in one hand a rod grasped in its middle, having on its top the figure of a small bird.
The arm holding this is extended toward a person who is resting on one knee before him, and offers from each of his hands that which is either food, drink, or incense, to the one on the throne. The head ornaments are of the most fantastic construction. The same without variation is cut in the stones of the ruined American city in many places; with this difference only, the American sculpture is much larger, as if representing gigantic beings, but is of the same character. Can we have a better proof than this, that Egyptian colonies have reached America in the very first ages of the world after the flood, or some people having the notions, the religion, and the arts of the Egyptians, and such were the most ancient people of Canaan, the Hivites, Perizzites, and Hitites, which names denote all these nations as serpent worshippers.
As it respects the true founders of this city, the discovery and contents of which are now causing so great and general interest in both this country and Europe, it is ascertained in the most direct and satisfactory way, in the work to which we have just alluded, published in London, 1832, on the subject of this city, that they were the ancient Hivites, one of the nations which inhabited Palestine, or Canaan, a remnant of which, it is ascertained, fled into the kingdom of Tyre, and there settled, and into Africa, to avoid annihilation by the wars of Joshua, the captain of the Jews; and that among them was one who acted as a leader, and was called Votan, and that he sailed from a port in ancient Tyre, which before it was known by that name, was called Chivim, and that this Votan was the third in the Gentile descent from Noah, and that he made several voyages to and from America. But the kingdom which was founded by Votan, was finally destroyed by other nations, and their works, their cities and towns, turned into a wilderness, as they are now found to be. (The word Hivite, which distinguished one of the nations of old Canaan in the time of Joshua, signifies the same thing in the Phœnician language, Serpent people or worshippers.) The Hivites, it appears, were the ancestors of the Moors, who spread themselves all along the western coast of Africa, at an early period, and in later times they overran the country of Spain, till the Romans supplanted them; who in their turn were supplanted by the northern nations of Germany, the Goths, &c. The Moors were not the proper Africans, as the hair of their heads was long, straight, and shining. They were a different race, and of different manners and attainments. The contour of the faces of the authors of the American city, found sculptured on the stones of its ruins, are in exact correspondence with the forehead and nose of the ancient Moors, the latter of which was remarkable for its aquiline shape, and was a national trait, characteristic of the Moors as well as the Romans.
When the Spaniards overran Peru, which lies on the western side of South America, on the coast of the Pacific were found statues, obelisks, mausolea, edifices, fortresses, all of stone, equal with the architecture of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, six hundred years before the Christian era. Roads were cut through the Cordillera mountains; gold, silver, copper, and lead mines, were opened and worked to a great extent; all of which is evidence of their knowledge of architecture, mineralogy, and agriculture. In many places of that country are found the ruins of noble aqueducts, some of which, says Dr. Morse, the geographer, would have been thought works of difficulty in civilized nations. Several pillars of stone are now standing, which were erected to point out the equinoxes and solstices. In their sepulchres were found paintings, vessels of gold and silver, implements of warfare, husbandry, &c. To illustrate the architectural knowledge of the Peruvians, as well as of some other provinces of South America, we quote the following from Baron Humboldt’s Researches, 1st vol. Eng. Trans., Amer. ed., p. 255:—“The remains of Peruvian architecture are scattered along the ridge of the Cordilleras, from Cuzco to Cajambe, or from the 13th degree of north latitude to the equator, a distance of nearly a thousand miles. What an empire, and what works are these, which all bear the same character in the cut of the stones, the shape of the doors to their stone buildings, the symmetrical disposal of the niches, and the total absence of exterior ornaments! This uniformity of construction is so great, that all the stations along the high road, called in that country palaces of the Incas, or kings of the Peruvians, appear to have been copied from each other; simplicity, symmetry, and solidity, were the three characters by which the Peruvian edifices were distinguished. The citadel of Cannar, and the square building surrounding it, are not constructed with the same quartz sandstone which covers the primitive slate, and the porphyries of Assuay; and which appears at the surface, in the garden of the Inca, as we descend toward the valley of Gulan; but of trappean porphyry, of great hardness, enclosing nitrous feldspar and hornblende. This porphyry was perhaps dug in the great quarries which are found at 4000 meters in height, (which is 13,000 feet and a fraction, making two and a third miles in perpendicular height,) near the lake of Culebrilla, or Serpent lake, ten miles from Cannar. To cut the stones for the buildings of Cannar, at so great a height, and to bring them down and transport them ten miles, is equal with any of the works of the ancients, who built the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabia, long before the Christian era.
“We do not find, however,” says Humboldt, “in the ruins of Cannar, those stones of enormous size, which we see in the Peruvian edifices of Cuzco and the neighboring countries. Acosto, he says, measured some at Traquanaco, which were twelve meters (thirty-eight feet) long, and five meters eight tenths (eighteen feet) broad, and one metre nine tenths (six feet) thick.” The stones made use of in building the temple of Solomon were but a trifle larger than these, some of which were twenty-five cubits (forty-three feet nine inches) long, twelve cubits (twenty-nine feet) wide, and eight cubits (fourteen feet) thick, reckoning twenty-one inches to the cubit.”
“One of the temples of ancient Egypt is now, in its state of ruin, a mile and a half in circumference. It has twelve principal entrances. The body of the temple consists of a prodigious hall or portico; the roof is supported by 134 columns. Four beautiful obelisks mark the entrance to the shrine, a place of sacrifice, which contains three apartments, built entirely of granite. The temple of Luxor probably surpasses in beauty and splendor all the other ruins of Egypt. In front are two of the finest obelisks in the world; they are of rose-colored marble, one hundred feet high. But the objects which most attract attention, are the sculptures which cover the whole of the northern front. They contain, on a great scale, a representation of a victory gained by one of the ancient kings of Egypt over an enemy. The number of human figures cut in the solid stone amounts to fifteen hundred; of these, five hundred are on foot, and one thousand in chariots. Such are the remains of a city which perished long before the records of ancient history had a being.”—Malte-Brun.
We are compelled to ascribe some of the vast operations of the ancient nations of this country, to those ages which correspond with the times and manners of the people of Egypt, which are also beyond the reach of authentic history. It should be recollected that the fleets of king Hiram navigated the seas in a surprising manner, seeing they had not, as is supposed, (but not proved,) a knowledge of the magnetic needle; and in some voyage out of the Mediterranean, into the Atlantic, they may have been driven to South America; where having found a country rich in all the resources of nature, more so than even their native country, they founded a kingdom, built cities, cultivated fields, marshalled armies, made roads, built aqueducts, became rich, magnificent, and powerful, as the vastness and extent of the ruins of Peru, and other provinces of South America, plainly show.
Humboldt says, that he saw at Pullal three houses made of stone, which were built by the Incas, (kings,) each of which was more than fifty meters, or a hundred and fifty feet long, laid in a cement, or true mortar. This fact, he says, deserves attention, because travellers who had preceded him had unanimously overlooked this circumstance, asserting that the Peruvians were unacquainted with the use of mortar, but this is erroneous. The Peruvians not only employed a mortar in the great edifices of Pacaritambo, but made use of a cement of asphaltum; a mode of construction which, on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, may be traced back to the remotest antiquity. The tools made use off to cut their stone were of copper, hardened with tin, the same metal used among the Greeks and Romans, and other nations.
To show the genius and enterprise of the natives of Mexico, before America was last discovered, we give the following as but a single instance: Montezuma, the last king but one of Mexico, A. D. 1446, forty-six years before the discovery of America by Columbus, erected a dike to prevent the overflowing of the waters of certain small lakes in the vicinity of their city, which had several times deluged it. This dike consisted of a bank of stones and clay, supported on each side by a range of palisadoes; extending in its whole length about seventy miles, and sixty-five feet broad, its whole length sufficiently high to intercept the overflowings of the lakes in times of high water, occasioned by the spring floods. In Holland, the Dutch have resorted to the same means to prevent incursions of the sea; and the longest of the many is but forty miles in extent, nearly one half short of the Mexican dike. “Amidst the extensive plains of Upper Canada, in Florida, near the gulf of Mexico, and in the deserts bordered by the Orinoco, in Colombia, dikes of a considerable length, weapons of brass, and sculptured stones, are found, which are the indications that those countries were formerly inhabited by industrious nations, which are now traversed only by tribes of savage hunters.”—[Priest.]
Ancient Languages of the First Inhabitants of America
Letter to M. Champollion, on the Graphic Systems of America, and the Glyphs of Otolum or Palenque, in Central America.—By C. S. Rafinesque.
You have become celebrated by deciphering, at last, the glyphs and characters of the ancient Egyptians, which all your learned predecessors had deemed a riddle, and pronounced impossible to read. You first announced your discovery in a letter. I am going to follow your footsteps on another continent, and a theme equally obscure; to none but yourself can I address with more propriety letters on a subject so much alike in purpose and importance, and so similar to your own labors.
I shall not enter at present into any very elaborate discussion. I shall merely detail, in a concise manner, the object and result of my inquiries, so as to assert my claim to a discovery of some importance in a philological and historical point of view: which was announced as early as 1828 in some journals (three letters to Mr. McCulloch on the American nations), but not properly illustrated. Their full development would require a volume, like that of yours on the Egyptian antiquities, and may follow this perhaps at some future time.
It may be needful to prefix the following principles as guides to my researches, or results of my inquiries:—
1. America has been the land of false systems; all those made in Europe on it are more or less vain and erroneous.
2. The Americans were equal in antiquity, civilization, and sciences, to the nations of Africa and Europe—like them, the children of the Asiatic nations.
3. It is false that no American nations had systems of writing, glyphs, and letters. Several had various modes of perpetuating ideas.
4. There were several such graphic systems in America to express ideas, all of which find equivalents in the east continent.
5. They may be ranged in twelve series, proceeding from the most simple to the most complex.
1st Series.—Pictured symbols or glyphs of the Toltecas, Aztecas, Huaztecas, Skeres, Panos, &c.; similar to the first symbols of the Chinese, invented by Tien-hoang, before the flood and earliest Egyptian glyphs.
2d Series.—Outlines of figures or abridged symbols and glyphs, expressing words or ideas, used by almost all the nations of North and South America, even the most rude; similar to the second kind of Egyptian symbols, and the tortoise letters brought to China by the Longma (dragon and horse) nation of barbarous horsemen, under Sui-gin.
3d Series.—Quipos or knots on strings used by the Peruvians and several other South American nations; similar to the third kind of Chinese glyphs introduced under Yong-Ching, and used also by many nations of Africa.
4th Series.—Wampums, or strings of shells and beads, used by many nations of North America; similar to those used by some ancient or rude nations in all parts of the world, as tokens of ideas.
5th Series.—Runic glyphs or marks, and notches on twigs or lines, used by several nations of North America; consimilar to the Runic glyphs of the Celtic and Teutonic nations.
6th Series.—Runic marks and dots, or graphic symbols, not on strings nor lines, but in rows, expressing words or ideas; used by the ancient nations of North America and Mexico, the Talegas, Aztecas, Natchez, Powhatans, Tuscaroras, &c., and also the Muhizcas of South America; similar to the ancient symbols of the Etruscans, Egyptians, Celts, &c., and the Ho-tu of the Chinese, invented by Tsang-hie, called also the Ko-teu-chu letters, which were in use in China till 827 before our era.
7th Series.—Alphabetical symbols, expressing syllables or sounds, not words, but grouped, and the groups disposed in rows; such is the graphic system of the monuments of Otolum, near Palenque, the American Thebes; consimilar to the groups of alphabetical symbols used by the ancient Libyans, Egyptians, Persians, and also the last graphic system of the Chinese, called Ventze, invented by Sse-hoang.
8th Series.—Cursive symbols in groups, and the groups in parallel rows, derived from the last (which are chiefly monumental), and used in the manuscripts of the Mayas, Guatemalans, &c.; consimilar to the actual cursive Chinese, some demotic Egyptian, and many modifications of ancient graphic alphabets, grouping the letters or syllables.
9th Series.—Syllabic letters, expressing syllables, not simple sounds, and disposed in rows. Such is the late syllabic alphabet of the Cherokees, and many graphic inscriptions found in North and South America. Similar to the syllabic alphabets of Asia, Africa, and Polynesia.
10th Series.—Alphabets, or graphic letters, expressing simple sounds, and disposed in rows. Found in many inscriptions, medals, and coins in North and South America, and lately introduced everywhere by the European colonists; similar to the alphabets of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
11th Series.—Abbreviations, or letters standing for whole words, or part of a glyph and graphic delineation, standing and expressing the whole; used by almost all the writing nations of North and South America, as well as Asia, Europe, and Africa.
12th Series.—Numeric system of graphic signs, to express numbers. All the various kinds of signs, such as dots, lines, strokes, circles, glyphs, letters, &c., used by some nations of North and South America, as well as in the eastern continent.
Some years ago, the Society of Geography, of Paris, offered a large premium for a voyage to Guatemala, and a new survey of the antiquities of Yucatan and Chiapa, chiefly those fifteen miles from Palenque, which are wrongly called by that name. I have restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins. I should have been inclined to undertake this voyage and exploration myself, if the civil discords of the country did not forbid it. My attention was drawn forcibly to this subject as soon as the account of those ruins, surveyed by Captain Del Rio as early as 1787, but withheld from the public eye by Spain, was published in 1822, in English.
This account, which partly describes the ruins of a stone city seventy-five miles in circuit (length thirty-two English miles, greatest breadth twelve miles), full of palaces, monuments, statues, and inscriptions—one of the earliest seats of American civilization, about equal to Thebes of Egypt—was well calculated to inspire me with hopes that they would throw a great light over American history, when more properly examined.
I have been disappointed in finding that no traveller has dared to penetrate again to that recondite place, and illustrate all the ruins and monuments, with the languages yet spoken all around. The Society of Geography has received many additional accounts, derived from documents preserved in Mexico; but they have not been deemed worthy of the reward offered for a new survey, and have not even been published. The same has happened with Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia, in South America, another mass of ancient ruins, and a mine of historical knowledge, which no late traveller has visited or described.
Being, therefore, without hope of any speedy accession to our knowledge of those places, I have been compelled to work upon the materials now extant, which have happily enabled me to do a great deal, notwithstanding all their defects, and throw some light on that part of the history of America.
Philadelphia, January, 1832.
Historical Sketch of Mexico
From Clavigero, Storia del Messico—from Solis, Boturini, Herrera, Bernal Dias, and other authors, we learn the state of the arts in Mexico prior to the invasion of the Spaniards; the progress made by that people in science; the form of their government, and of their hierarchy: and from the simple and unaffected narrative of Cortez, contained in his letters to Charles the Fifth, we may gather pretty accurate knowledge of their resources, and of the number and character of the population.
Some idea may be formed of the civilization of a people, by the nature of their government, their civil institutions, and the laws by which they are governed. In Mexico, the monarch was elected from among the members of the reigning family, by six electors, chosen from among the thirty princes of the first rank. The political system was feudal. The first class of nobles, consisting of thirty families, had each one hundred thousand vassals. There were more than three thousand families in the second class. The vassals were serfs attached to the soil, over whom the lord exercised the right of life and death. All the lands were divided into allodial, hereditary, and contingent estates—the latter depending upon places in the gift of the crown.
The priests were charged with the education of the youth; and on their testimony of the merit of their scholars, depended their future rank. Each province was subject to a tribute, except certain nobles who were compelled to take the field, in case of a war, with a stated number of followers. The tribute was paid in kind, and was fixed at one thirtieth part of the crop. Besides which, the governors of provinces vied with each other in the magnificence of the presents which they sent to the emperor.
In the quarto edition of Lorenzano, there are plates of the figures, by means of which the receivers and administrators kept an account of the tribute due by each province.
There was an Octroi upon provisions, levied in every city. Posts were established between the capital and the remotest provinces of the empire.
Sacrilege, treason, and murder, were punished with death; and Cortez protests that the Mexicans respected the laws of the empire fully as much as the Spaniards did those of Spain.
The emperor was served with great magnificence and Asiatic pomp.
The attention of the government was principally directed toward the internal commerce, so as to secure an abundant supply to the people.
A court of ten magistrates determined the validity of contracts; and officers were constantly employed to examine the measures and the quality of the goods exposed for sale.
Under Montezuma, the government was despotic, and, in his turn, he was governed by the high-priest. It will be recollected that at the last siege of the capital, when the emperor and his council had resolved to accept any terms rather than prolong a hopeless contest, the high-priest opposed them and broke off the treaty.
Besides the empire of the Mexicans, there were other powerful states, whose form of government was republican; and Cortez compared them to the republics of Pisa, Venice, and Genoa.
I must refer the reader to Clavigero and Lorenzano, for the history of Tlascala, the most powerful of those states, the government of which existed some time after the conquest of Mexico.
Tlascala was a thickly-settled, fertile, and populous country, divided into several districts, under the authority of a chief. These chiefs administered justice, levied the tribute, and commanded the military forces; but their decrees were not valid, or of force, until confirmed by the senate of Tlascala, which was the true sovereign.
A certain number of citizens, chosen from the different districts by popular assemblies, formed this legislative body. The senate elected its own chief. The laws were strictly and impartially executed; and Cortez represents this people as numerous, wealthy, and warlike.
The Mexicans possessed some knowledge of astronomy, and their calendar was constructed with more exactness than that of the Greeks, the Romans, or the Egyptians. Their hieroglyphic drawings and maps—their cities and artificial roads, causeways, canals, and immense pyramids—their government and hierarchy, and administration of laws—their knowledge of the art of mining, and of preparing metals for armament and use—their skill in carving images out of the hardest stone—in manufacturing and dyeing cloths, and the perfection of their agriculture, inspire us with a high opinion of the civilization of the Mexicans at the time of the conquest: especially when we take into consideration the period when they are described to have reached this state of excellence in the arts and sciences. We ought always to bear in mind the state of Europe at the same period, before the Reformation, and before the discovery of the art of printing. Cortez compares Mexico with Spain, and frequently to the advantage of the former. The only circumstance wanting to have rendered their state of society more perfect than that of Spain, appears to have been a more pure religion, and the use of animals for domestic purposes.
The peasants were compelled to carry heavy loads, like beasts of burden; and in their religious worship the most shocking superstition prevailed. Their altars were frequently stained with the blood of human sacrifices.
We cannot judge of the character of the population, prior to the conquest, by the Indians we now see. The priests, who possessed all the learning, were destroyed; the princes and nobles were deprived of their property, and in fact reduced to a level with the lowest class; and the serfs, who are, and always have been an oppressed and degraded people, are alone to represent the former Mexicans.
Humboldt says, that “it is difficult to appreciate, justly, the moral character of the native Mexicans, if we consider this caste, which has so long suffered under a barbarous tyranny, only in its present state of degradation. At the commencement of the Spanish conquest, the wealthy Indians, for the most part, perished, victims of the ferocity of the Europeans. Christian fanaticism persecuted the Aztec priests; they exterminated the Teopixqui, or ministers of the Divinity, all who inhabited the teocalli, or temples, and who could be regarded as depositaries of historical, mythological, and astronomical knowledge. The monks burnt the hieroglyphic paintings, by which knowledge of every sort was transmitted from generation to generation. Deprived of these means of instruction, the people relapsed into a state of ignorance so much the more profound, that the missionaries, little skilled in the Mexican languages, substituted few new ideas for the ancient. The Indian women, who preserved some fortune, preferred allying themselves with the conquerors, to partaking the contempt entertained for the Indians. There remained, therefore, of the natives, none but the most indigent, the poor cultivators, mechanics, porters, who were used as beasts of burden—and, above all, the dregs of the people, that crowd of beggars, which marked the imperfection of the social institutions and the feudal yoke, and who, even in the time of Cortez, filled the streets of the great cities of Mexico. How, then, shall we judge from these miserable remains of a powerful people, either of the degree of civilization to which it had reached, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, or of the intellectual development of which it is susceptible?”
Shortly after Cortez landed his small army at Vera Cruz, he received messengers from Montezuma, bringing with them presents to a considerable amount, and entreating the Spanish commander not to march further into the country. The sight of this display of wealth stimulated the cupidity of the Spaniards, and confirmed Cortez in his determination to penetrate to the capital. In his route he had to contend against the republic of Tlascala, a nation continually involved in war with the empire of Mexico. Cortez vanquished the republicans in two battles, and, after compelling them to make peace, he found no difficulty in enlisting them against Montezuma. Six thousand Tlascalans were added to his European troops as auxiliaries, and he continued his march upon the capital of the empire in the guise of friendship. As he advanced, he continued to augment his forces by treaties with other nations or tribes, which were inimical to Montezuma; and with a European force of five hundred infantry and fifteen horsemen, and a large army of Indians, he reached the city of Tenochtitlan on the 8th of November, 1519. The emperor received him with a degree of magnificence that excited the astonishment of the Spaniards. The whole army was lodged and entertained sumptuously, and Cortez himself received presents to a great amount. Some of these he enumerates to Charles the Fifth, in order to give him an idea of the riches and ingenuity of this extraordinary people.
It is not surprising, that at the sight of so much wealth, Cortez should form the wish to become possessed of it. He soon acquired an ascendency over the timid Mexicans, and Montezuma found that in admitting an armed and powerful friend into the heart of his capital, he had delivered himself and his people into the hands of a ferocious enemy.
The Mexican general, Qualpopoca, who had committed some hostilities upon the colony left by the Spaniards at Vera Cruz, was, on the demand of Cortez, delivered up to him, bound hand and foot, and by his order was burnt alive. Soon after this barbarous act, he contrived to get possession of the person of Montezuma, and detained him prisoner. But what, perhaps, irritated the people more even than this violation of the person of the emperor, was the contempt with which their religious rites and idols were treated by the Spaniards.
The arrival of Narvaez on the coast, with a large force, despatched by Velasco to deprive Cortez of the command, compelled the latter to leave Alvarado in command of the force at Tenochtitlan, and to march against this unexpected enemy. His departure from the capital was the signal for the people to manifest the hostile feeling they had long indulged toward the Spaniards. They took up arms against them, burnt the vessels which Cortez had constructed to command the lake, and laid siege to the building in which the Spaniards were lodged.
At this period Cortez returned, after having surprised and vanquished Narvaez. By this action he acquired a great accession of force; and he is said to have had, after his arrival at the capital, one thousand infantry and one hundred horse. The siege was prosecuted with vigor and determination on the part of the natives, and the place defended with equal obstinacy and valor on the part of the Spaniards. Montezuma, who had ascended the terrace to address his subjects and to quell the insurrection, was killed by a stone or arrow, and his brother Quetlavaca proclaimed his successor. This gave renewed vigor to the Mexicans, and Cortez was compelled to retreat. His own account of his flight, in one of his letters, is well worth reading. The night of this disastrous retreat was called La Noche triste, the melancholy night.
Cortez continued to retreat upon Tlascala, the Mexicans pursuing and harassing his rear. At Otumba, he was obliged to turn and give them battle. He describes his own troops as worn out with fatigue, but says that the enemy were so numerous that they could neither fight nor fly; and that the slaughter continued the whole day, until one of their principal chiefs was killed, which put an end to the battle and to the war. He reached Tlascala without further trouble, with the remnant of his forces, and was well received by his old allies.
He was urged by his officers, and by the garrison of Vera Cruz, to retire to the coast, but refused to abandon the conquest of Mexico; and, in order to maintain the ascendency he had acquired over the people of Tlascala, he made incursions into the territories of the neighboring nations, whence he always returned victorious, and loaded with spoil.
In December, 1521, he again marched upon Tenochtitlan, and took up his quarters in Tezcuco. From this place he carried on the war against the Mexicans and their allies, until the arrival of the frames of thirteen small vessels, which he had ordered to be constructed in Tlascala. They were brought by such a multitude of Indians, Cortez says, that “from the time the first began to enter the city until the last finished, more than six hours elapsed.” In order to launch these brigantines, as he calls them, a canal of half a mile in length was cut from the lake, of such ample dimensions, that eight thousand Indians worked every day at it, for fifty days, before it was completed.
On reviewing his troops, after the vessels were on the lake, he found that he had eighty-six horsemen, one hundred and eighteen fusiliers, and upward of seven hundred infantry, armed with swords and bucklers, three large iron field-pieces, and fifteen small ones of bronze, with ten quintals of powder. He does not give the number of Indians then with him, but on the following day he despatched messengers to Tlascala and other provinces, to inform these people that he was ready to proceed against Tenochtitlan. In consequence of this advice, the captains of Tlascala arrived with their forces, well appointed and well armed; and, according to their report, they amounted to upward of fifty thousand.
He divided his forces into three corps: one, consisting of thirty horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, and twenty-five thousand Tlascalans, was commanded by Pedro de Alvarado, and was to occupy Tacuba. Another, commanded by Christoval Olid, consisted of thirty-three horsemen, eighteen fusiliers, and one hundred and seventy infantry, armed with sword and buckler, together with upward of twenty thousand Indians, was to take possession of Cuyoacan. The third division was intrusted to Gonzalo de Sandoval; it amounted to twenty-four horsemen, fifteen fusiliers, and one hundred and fifty infantry, armed with sword and buckler, with thirty thousand Indians. This division was to march upon Iztapalapan, destroy that town, and then, under cover of the vessels, form a junction with that of Olid. Cortez himself commanded the fleet. As soon as they reached their several destinations, Alvarado and Olid destroyed the aqueducts, and cut off the supply of water from the city.
After a siege of seventy-five days, during which both parties displayed the most obstinate courage, the besieged, reduced to the last extremity by disease and famine, made an attempt to evacuate the city by water. They were pursued by the light squadron of the Spaniards; and the canoe which carried the person of the emperor was captured by Garcia Holguin. This capture put an end to the war. When Gautimotzin, who had succeeded to the throne on the death of his uncle, was brought before Cortez, on the terrace where he was standing, and which overlooked the lake—he advanced, says Cortez, toward me, and said that he had done everything which his duty required, to defend himself and his subjects, until he was reduced to this state, and that I might now do with him what I thought proper; and put his hand on a dagger that I wore, telling me to stab him.
The siege was commenced on the 30th of May, 1521, and terminated on the 13th of August; and Cortez says, that during these seventy-five days, not one passed without some combat between the besieged and the Spaniards.
The captured Mexicans were divided among the conquerors; and Cortez informs the emperor that he had preserved his share of the gold and silver, and his fifth of the slaves, and other things, which by right belonged to his Majesty—and as slaves they continued to be treated for centuries, notwithstanding the humane laws passed in Spain for their relief.
It would be tedious and unprofitable to trace the colonial history of Mexico from the conquest to the revolution. From great natural advantages, this country has become rich and powerful, in spite of a most impolitic colonial system. In justice to the government of Spain, it must be acknowledged that the laws of the Indies were wise and just, and the regulations relating to the poor Indians framed in the very spirit of humanity; but their administration was bad, and the Creoles were oppressed by their European masters—and, in their turn, harassed and oppressed the unfortunate natives. Almost the only bright spot in the page of this history, is the period of the administration of the viceroy Revillagigedo. Good roads, leading from the capital to different parts of the kingdom, were laid out and constructed by his orders; and the streets of the principal cities were paved and lighted, and a good police established. The only authentic statistical account of this country was made out at this period; and almost every salutary law or regulation now in existence may be traced to the administration of Revillagigedo.
The immediate causes of the revolution of the Spanish colonies are too generally known to require any further explanation. The invasion of Spain by Napoleon only accelerated a revolution, toward which the Americans were slowly but irresistibly impelled by the conduct of the mother country, and by the political events of the age.—[Poinsett.]
Footnotes
1. For the use of a French copy of “Waldeck’s Yucatan,” I am indebted to my distinguished countryman, Mr. Stephens, for which, and for many other civilities, I embrace this opportunity to make my sincere acknowledgments.
2. A specimen of the Lord’s Prayer in the Maya language is here transcribed:—
Cayum yannech ti canoob, cilich cunabac a kaba, tac cokol a kahaulil utzcinabac, a nolah ti luum baix, te ti caane sa ca zamalkin, uah toon helelach, zatex ix czipil bay czazic, u zipil uh ziplob toone maix, a uilic e lubul, ti tuntabale, hanuca lukezon, ichil lobil. Amen.
3. It is my purpose to give a more extended discussion of the Maya language in a subsequent chapter. I was so fortunate as to procure from an Indian in the interior of Yucatan the only copy I have ever seen of R. P. L. Beltran’s Grammar of this language, which is mentioned in the text. It is entitled, “Arte de el Idioma Maya, Reducido á Succinctas Reglas y Semi Lexicon Yucateco, por el R. P. F. Pedro Beltran, de Santa Rosa Maria, ex-Custodio, Lector que sue de Philosophia y Theologia, Revisor del Sto. Oficio, é hijo de esta Sta. Recoleccion Franciscana de Merida. Formólo y Dictólo sienda Maestro de Lengua Maya en el Convento Capitular de N. S. P. S. Francisco, de dicha Ciudad. Año de 1742, Yolo Dedica á la Gloriosa Indiana Santa Rosa Maria de Lima, con licencia: en Mexico, por la Venda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal. Año de 1746.”
4. Chi-Chen signifies, Mouth of a Well. “Itza,” said to be the Maya name for one of the old possessors of these ruins, is sometimes added by the natives.
5. The names by which I have designated these ruins, are such as were suggested to me by their peculiar construction, and the purposes for which I supposed them to have been designed.
6. I found the wood of the zuporte-tree had been used exclusively in these buildings for lintels and thwart-beams, but for no other purpose. Upon several of the beams yet remaining, there were elaborate carvings. This wood is well known in this country for its remarkable durability and solidity.
7. Dublin Penny Journal for 1834 and 1835, pages 349, 350.
8. Uxmal signifies “Times past.”
9. The names (though misnomers) of these structures originated with the people of the country.
10. Breckenridge.
11. Sparks’ Life of Ledyard.
12. Priest.
13. Bradford’s Am. Ant.
14. Prof. Rafinesque.
15. De Solis.
16. Crawford’s Siam.
17. Montezuma, in reply to Cortez, says, “In regard to the creation of the world, our beliefs are the same.”—Bernal Diez.
18. An evil genius of hideous appearance, that, it was believed, would devour the world.
19. “They had books made of the bark of trees, in which were noted down the records of past times.”—Bernal Diez.
20. “The natives of these countries have learned trades, and have their shops, manufactories, and journeymen, and gain their livelihood thereby. The gold and silver smiths work both in cast metal and by the hammer; and excel, as do the lapidaries and painters. The engravers execute first-rate work with their fine instruments of iron, especially upon emeralds; wherein they represent all the acts of the holy passions in such a manner, that those who had not seen them execute it, would not have believed such to have been done by the hand of an Indian. The sons of the chiefs used to be grammarians; and were learning very well until they were forbidden by the holy synod, under an order from the Archbishop of Mexico. They excel in all manufactures, not excepting that of tapestry.”—Bernal Diez.
21. Bernal Diez.
22. De Solis.
The End