supposed to have been the source whence many other writers
have borrowed much, as Torquemada,* and more lately Cla-
vigero. Bernardino de Sahagun was a Spanish Franciscan
monk, who went to Mexico as early as - 1629,f and died
there in 1590. Hfe as said to have made along study of the
hieroglyphical literature of the Mexican race iO- the city of
Tescuco with the aid of native teachers. Mr; Gallatin, who
is well qualified to estimate the merits of Sahagun, says that
h p is more camless of chronological accuracy than o f other
subjects. But Mr.' Gallatin gives Sahagun the credit* of
having*" invented nothing.” He gives the .names, durations
of reigns, and dates as he received them*from oral Communication
with the. best-informed natives of each place in
Mexicoi * He states the tradition respecting the Toltec nation
as it was current in his time, and if he assigns mo dates for
the duration of their monarchy or any other event grifpdto
' the'immigration of the Chichimecs, Acolhuas, and Mexicans^
it is, as Mr. Gallatin observes, because nothing was known
on these points or communicated to him by his informants»
The most remarkable feature, in the opinion of the same.critic,
in Sahagun’s historical notices, is that he, the most early
Spanish author who collected Indian traditions and paintings,
while his accounts are substantially the same as those o€;sub-
gequent writers, does not attempt to give a single date prior
to the twelfth century, and that in a vague manner,- as when
he says that the lords of Vexotla reigned 400 years, more or
less. The most ancient date actually designated by him is
1246.
According to Sahagun, the Toltecs, arriving from, the north, *
were the first inhabitants of the land of Mexico, and lived
first at Tullantzinco, and afterwards at Tulla. “ He speaks
at large of their learning and their progress in arts, of their
* Torquemada himself went to Mexico about the middle of the sixteenth
century, when the generation of the conquerors had not yet passed away.
He spent fifty years in New Spain, and collected from the earliest missionaries
and from other then accessible resources the materials for the history of the
ancient Mexicans, which he embodied in his great work, entitled “ La
Monarquia Indiana.”
t Viz. nine years after the death of Montezuma.
god Quetzalc'oatl; and of a pries#~of the same name, at
whose persuasion they left Tulla and went eastward to Tla-
pallan, ‘fctó -Gitÿt ôf tlaeèS-ûn,- which they'- destroyed. Those
who escaped, built Chdlullav’* iQuetzailc^all disappeared towards
theeagt, but was ^xpeitedlhy- the Mexican .nations to
return. KtSortez vVas^at first taken for^Quètzalcoàtl, but his
conduct soon undeceived* them. i;-* All who^^peak^the pure
Mexican laugimigei' brMshe ^Nahoasp-.orjjl^ahHatlakas, are de-*
scendants Ir of the'Toltecs‘-who -didvöiot follow Quetzalcoatl.
Sahagun giVfes * no daté for the arrival .of the Tolftecâ^but *he-
s a ^ ith a t the* GhicMîneoaé arrived in- tlm valley of Teseucd
twenty,Jtwo y eats after the .destruction ofoTjdla, - and that the
first ford of Tescaeo-was called-lord of 5 th^CJfeehiniepasi
and was elèeted’ 1246. ThetjTéScùCarfs ihad‘- reigned.-ébout
3Oi0i -ÿeàrSj-on the activai of (3ortfeZ5b Aboutt^éôÔKyeâfs Is
given as the duration of time' from- tbbr> first arrival, of the
GMchimrfas from the north to* the ■’Spianish conquest^*
■ t There were several other writers moré' orvfe^éoànected
with the Mexican race who devoted, themselves* to the history
of I their • country; One of them* Daö Fernand# Pimenté!
Ixtlilxochitfo was the-; son of Göanocötzin, /thfe .Jast > king of
Acôlhuacan. Fernando de Alva IxtlilxochitL was * more ^celebrated
lie also was of the royal family -of Téscuéö. He
wrote ih Spanish the history of the Chiqhimecasj fromj whorfi
the people of Acolhuacan were éaidito have descended. His
work has lately been published in French by M.iTemaux-
Compans. It comprises noticeSJofo all the- great Mexican
nations besides - the proper Mexicans & Aztecs. The following
abstract of it is taken from Mr. Gallatin’-s learned, essay.
The ancient Mexicans had a remarkable series-. traditions
which bear a striking analogy to those Of: the Hindoos, and
which, like I that ' people, H connected with astronomical
epochs. The returns of thesb' epochs, were connected with
great revolutions of nature. At I the« end | | | eacll; the world
\yas destroyed and the surf extinguished. Fernando de Alva
—- * Mr. dàllatm’s admirable essay on 'the hifctofy" of-the semi-civilised
nations of Ataerita, m the first Volume of the Transactions of the American
Ethnological Society, p. 148»