4. On the decline of the Toltecan monarchy, the Chechemecas appeared in
Mexico. These people were also from a northern country, which their annals
call Amaquemecan. They were' a nation of hunters, clothed in the skins of
beasts, and unacquainted with agriculture or the arts of civilised life. Their
religion embraced the simple worship of the sun, to which they made offerings of
fruits and flowers, unattended by human sacrifices. Although the Chechemecas
were a rude people, they were not averse to civilisation: they mixed with the
Toltecas who still remained in the country, adopted their agriculture, and many
of those ornamental arts to which we have already adverted.*
5. It was during the Chechemecan monarchy that the seven tribes took up
their abode in Anahuac. These tribes bore the following names: Zochimilcas,
Calchese, Tapanecas, Colhuas, Tlahuicas, Tlascalans, and Aztecs or Mexicans.
These nations bore the collective name of Nahautlacas; they came also from a
northern country which they called Aztlan, which was contiguous to Aquemecan,
the hive of the Chechemecas.f This immigration took place in the year 1178.
These several tribes established themselves independently in Anahuac, the
Mexicans being the last in order of arrival, A. D. 1245.
6. Subsequent to the seven tribes there arrived another great family, bearing
the name of Alcohuans, whose native seats were nearly identical with those of
the Chechemecas. A confederacy was early established between the Alcohuans,
the Chechemecas and the Toltecas, and the national appellation was derived
from the first of these tribes, which is represented to have been further advanced
in civilisation than any people of Anahuac, excepting the Toltecas. These
nations, together with the Naulacas, appear all to have spoken dialects of the same
language, a fact which is accounted for in their cognate origin.^
The Aztecs or Mexicans were at first tributary to the Alcohuans, hut they
early shook off the yoke, and became in their turn the rulers of Mexico, which
they governed until the capital fell into the hands of the Spaniards under Cortez,
in the year 1521.
* Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, B. II.
t These northern seats of civilisation, however, have been sought for in vain; and it is worthy of
remark, that the learned Cabrera has attempted to show that the native seats of the nations above
enumerated, were not to the north, but in the south of Mexico. After an enumeration of various
plausible facts, he adds, “ all these circumstances united tend to demonstrate, by evidence as clear as
evidence can prove, that the kingdom of Amaquemecan was situated in the present province of
Chiapa.”—See Solution o f the grand Historical problem o f the .population o f America, p. 58.
t Humboldt, Monuments, I, p. 81.
Having thus traced, in as few words as possible, the affiliation of the various
tribes which intruded themselves into Mexico, we proceed in the next place to
inquire into the distinguishing traits of these communities, all which are now
registered in history by the collective name of Mexicans.
All these nations were characterised, as we have observed, by similarity of
language, and they possessed also similar manners, institutions, and physical traits;
and Humboldt has compared their affinity to that which is known to exist between
the Germans, the Norwegians, the Goths and the Danes, who are all embraced in
a singfe race.*
The moral and physical qualities of the Mexicans, says Clavigero, their
tempers and dispositions, were the same with those of the Alcohuans, the
Tepanecas, the Tlascalans and other nations, with no other difference than what
arose from their different mode of education, so that what is said of one may be
considered applicable to all the others.f “ The Mexicans are of good stature,
generally rather exceeding than falling short of the middling size, and well
proportioned in all their limbs: they have good complexions, narrow foreheads,
black eyes, clean, firm, regular white teeth ; thick, black, coarse, glossy hair, thin
beards, and generally no hair upon their legs and arms. There is scarcely a
nation, perhaps, upon earth in which there are fewer deformed persons, and it
would be more difficult to find a single hump-backed, lame or squint-eyed man
among a thousand Mexicans, than among a hundred of any other nation. The
unpleasantness of their color, the smallness of their forehead, the thinness of their
beard and the coarseness of their hair, are so far compensated by the regularity
and fine'proportion of their limbs, that they can neither be called very beautiful,
nor the contrary, but seem to hold a middle place between the extremes.
“ Their appearance neither engages nor disgusts; but among the young women
of Mexico, there are many very beautiful and fair; whose beauty is at the same
time rendered more winning by the sweetness of their manner of speaking, and by
the pleasantness and natural modesty of their whole behaviour.
Their senses are very acute, especially that of sight, which they retain
unimpaired to old age. They are moderate in eating, but like all the American
nation they delight in intoxicating drinks, which have already caused a frightful
waste of life. To these observations of Clavigero may be added a few others
from Humboldt, who describes them as possessing “ a swarthy and copper color,
flat and smooth hair, squat body, long eye with the corner directed upwards
* Monuments, I, p. 214.
X Clavigero, I, p. 104. Am . ed.
t Hist, of Mexico, I, p. 103.