Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/110

 

The writers and documents cited in the preceding columns are esteemed the highest authority upon Mexican history and antiquities.

This is perhaps the best comparative table of Mexican Chronology,—up to the period of the conquest,—that has ever been compiled; and the great discrepancy between the dates assigned by various authorities, exhibits the guess work upon which the earlier Mexican history is founded.

In addition to the tribes or States enumerated in the preceding tables as constituting the nucleus of the Mexican empire under Montezuma, at the period of the Spanish conquest, it must be recollected that there were numerous other Indian States,—such as the Tlascalans, Cholulans, & c, whose origin is more obscure even than that of the Aztecs. Besides these, there were, on the territories now comprehended within the Mexican republic, the Tarascos who inhabited Michoacan, an independent sovereignty;—the barbarous Ottomies; the Olmecs; the Xicalancas; the Miztecas, and Zapotecas. The last named are supposed by Baron Humboldt to have been superior, in civilization, to the Mexicans, and probably preceded the Toltecs in the date of their emigration. Their architectural remains are found in Oaxaca. If we consider the comparatively small space in which the original tribes were gathered together in the valley of Mexico, which is not probably over two hundred and fifty miles in circumference, we cannot but be surprised that such remarkable results were achieved from such paltry beginnings and upon so narrow a theatre. The subjugation of so large a territory and such numerous tribes, by the Aztecs and Tezcocans is perhaps quite as wonderful an achievement, as the final subjugation of those victorious nations by the Spaniards. But in all our estimates of Spanish valor and generalship, in the splendid campaigns of Cortéz, we should never forget,—as we have remarked in the text,—the material assistance he received from his Indian allies—the Tlascalans