The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 5, Primitive History

During the first six years of their stay in the valley of the Quetzalatl, the Toltecs gave their attention to the building of the new city, and the careful cultivation of the surrounding lands; at least such is the account given by Ixtlilxochitl and those who have followed him; but, according to Brasseur's interpretation, they spent the six years in the conquest of the province and siege of the ancient city which they re-named Tollan. Up to this time the exiles from Huehue Tlapallan had lived under the command of the rebel princes Chalcaltzin and Tlacamihtzin with their five companions acting as chiefs of the different families,[382 - Chalcatzin, Tlacamilitzin, Checatl, Cohuatzon, Mazacohuatl, Tlapalhuitz, and Huitz. Veytia, tom. i., p. 207. Chalcatzin, Acatl, Eccatl, Cohuatzin, Mazacohuatl Otziuhcohuatl, Tlapalhuiz, and Huitz. Ixtlilxochitl, p. 393. Zaca, Chalcatzin, Ecatzin, Cohuazon, Tzihuacohuatl, Tlapalmetzotzin, and Metzoltzin. Id., p. 450. Tlacomihua or Acatl, Chalchiuhmatz, Avecatl, Coatzon, Tziuhcoatl, Tlapalhuitz, and Huitz. Id., pp. 206-7. Tzacatl, Chalcatzin, Ehecatzin, Cohuatzon, Tzihuac-Cohuatl, Tlapalmetzotzin, and Metzotzin. Torquemada, tom. i., p. 37. Tzacatl, Telacalzin, Echecalzin, Cohualzon, Tezihuaccoahuatl, Tlapalmezoltzin, and Melzolzin. Boturini, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 230.] but all acting under the directions of Hueman the prophet. The great age attributed to both prophet and chiefs, who for over a century at the least had directed the wanderings of their people, does not, of course merit serious discussion, since it cannot be literally accepted. The most natural, yet a purely conjectural, interpretation of the tradition is that a line or family of chieftains is represented by its founder or by its most famous member; and that by Hueman is to be understood the powerful priesthood that ruled the destinies of the Toltecs, from the earliest days to the fall of their empire. The government was a theocratic republic, each chief directing the movements of his band in war and, so far as such direction was needed, in peace, but all yielding, through fear of the gods or veneration for their representatives, implicit obedience to the counsels of their spiritual leader in all matters of national import. But in the seventh year after their arrival in Tollan, when the republic was yet in a state of peace and prosperity, undisturbed by foreign or internal foes, the chiefs convened an assembly of the heads of families and the leading men. The object of the meeting was to effect a change in the form of their government, and to establish a monarchy. The motive of the leaders, as represented by the tradition, was a fear of future disturbances in a commonwealth governed by so many independent chieftains. They recommended the election of an absolute monarch, offering to surrender their own power and submit to the rule of whatever king the people might choose. The members of the convention acquiesced in the views of the chieftains, and approved the proposed change in their form of government. An election being next in order, a majority expressed their preference for one of the seven chiefs to occupy the new throne.

A MONARCHY ESTABLISHED

At this stage of the proceedings Hueman addresses the meeting; though entertaining the highest opinion of the character, ability, and patriotism of the candidates proposed, he deems it his duty to oppose their election. He reminds the people that the main object of the proposed change was to secure a peaceable and independent possession of their new country; that the Chichimecs had pursued and already caused them much trouble; that much was to be feared from their confirmed hostility; that their foes were not far distant, and would very likely invade the country at no very distant day. He recommended as the most efficient means of avoiding future strife, that an embassy with rich presents be sent to the Chichimec monarch, asking for a son or other near relative who should be crowned king of the Toltecs. An express stipulation must, however, be required on the part of the Chichimec king that the Toltecs should ever be a perfectly free and independent people, owing no allegiance whatever to the Chichimecs, although the two powers would enter into an alliance for mutual defense and assistance. The advice of the aged and venerated counsellor was of course accepted without objection; in fact, as pictured by the Spanish writers, Toltec history is for the most part but a record of sage counsels of wise rulers cheerfully acquiesced in by an appreciative and obliging people. Ambassadors of the highest rank, laden with gifts of value, were dispatched by the shortest routes to the court of Huehue Tlapallan – notwithstanding the implied vicinity of some Chichimec nations – where Icauhtzin[383 - Ixtlilxochitl. Called also Achcauhtzin, Cabrera, Teatro, p. 95. Icoatzin, Veytia, tom. i., p. 301.] occupied the throne. The mission was entirely successful. The second son of the king, still a young man, whose name in his own country is unknown, was with the required stipulations, brought back by the embassy and crowned at Tollan under the name of Chalchiuh Tlatonac,[384 - Torquemada, tom. i., p. 37; Clavigero, tom. i., p. 127; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 215. Chalchiuhtlanetzin, or Chalchiuhtlatonac. Veytia, tom. i., pp. 233, 301. Chalchiuhtlahuextzin, Ixtlilxochitl, p. 393. Tlalchiuhtlanelzin. Boturini, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 230. Ixtlilxochitl seems to imply, in another part of his writings, Hist. Chich., p. 207, that the king was chosen among the Toltecs themselves. This Sr Pimentel, in Dicc. Univ., tom. x., p. 611, deems much more probable than the course indicated in the other accounts.] 'shining precious stone.'

The young king, by reason of his fine personal appearance, his character, intelligence and amiability, seems to have greatly pleased from the first the people over whom he was called to rule. The events related above, the settlement at Tollan and the connection of the first king, must be attributed to the first quarter of the eighth century, between 710 and 720.[385 - 503 or 510 or 509 or 556. Ixtlilxochitl. 700, et seq. Torquemada. 713-19. Veytia. Brasseur has 718. 670, et seq. Müller. All the authorities agree on 7 Acatl as the date of the establishment of the kingdom. Clavigero interprets the date as 667.] Immediately after the accession of the young monarch, a law was established by him and his counsellors to the effect that no king should reign more than fifty-two years, but at the expiration of this term should abdicate in favor of his eldest son,[386 - See vol. ii., p. 140.] whom he might, however, still serve as adviser. Should the king die before the allotted time had elapsed, it was provided that the state should be ruled during the unexpired term by magistrates chosen by the people. In addition to the inherent improbability of such extraordinary legislation, it should be noted that subsequent events, even as related by Ixtlilxochitl, do not in all cases agree with it. Its meaning can only be conjectured; it is noticeable, however, that the time allotted to each reign was exactly a cycle of fifty-two years, and it is not altogether unlikely that a custom prevailed of alluding in the pictured annals to each cycle by the name of the most famous king whose reign fell within the period. The next event, and the only one particularly recorded in the reign of Chalchiuh Tlatonac, was his marriage. Realizing the importance of providing for heirs that the dynasty might be perpetuated, he left the choice of a wife entirely to his subjects, much to their satisfaction, as indicating a desire on the part of royalty to please the people. The choice fell upon a beautiful daughter of Acapichtzin. The latter had himself been a favorite candidate for royal honors when a kingdom was first proposed, and was thus rewarded by seeing his daughter raised to the dignity of first Toltec queen. The Olmec, Xicalanca, and other Toltec nations had voluntarily given their allegiance to the monarch of Tollan, who reigned long and prosperously for fifty-two years, when he died and was buried in the chief temple in 7 Acatl, or about 771 A.D.[387 - 608 A.D., according to Ixtlilxochitl, p. 450. On the establishment of the Toltecs in Tollan and the reign of the first king, see: Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 206-7, 322-5, 336, 392-3, 450, 458, 460; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 221-39; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 126-7, tom. iv., pp. 46, 51; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. iii., lib. x., pp. 106-15, 145, lib. xi., p. 312; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 37, 254; Boturini, Idea, pp. 77, 139; Id., in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 230; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 299; Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 5; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 11; Cabrera, Teatro, p. 95; Arlegui, Chrón. Zacatecas, p. 6; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 209, et seq.; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 138; Prescott's Mex., vol. i., pp. 12-13; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 524; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. i., p. 95; Chevalier, Mexique, p. 55; Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 20; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. v., p. 95; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 46; Pimentel, in Dicc. Univ., tom. x., pp. 610-11.]

THE KINGDOM OF TOLLAN

Thus in the record preserved by the Spanish writers, all participation in the new monarchy by other Chichimec Toltec tribes than those in and about Tollan, is altogether ignored. The Olmecs and other pre-Toltec nations are represented as having voluntarily offered their allegiance, new towns founded by colonists sent out from Tollan and Tulancingo became of course tributary to the new kingdom, and it is even admitted that powerful Chichimec nations were established not far distant, and were regarded with some anxiety in view of probable future events until the danger was averted by the selection of a Chichimec prince as king, and the consequent transformation of their rivals into allies. The absence of any further mention of these allied and friendly nations throughout the whole period of Toltec history is certainly most extraordinary, and might be sufficient in itself to arouse a suspicion that in the records from which this account was drawn the kingdom of Tollan was given unmerited prominence, while its allies and rivals were intentionally denied their share in the glories of the Toltec empire. This suspicion seems to be to a considerable extent confirmed by the two Nahua documents already referred to.[388 - Codex Chimalpopoca, and Memorial de Culhuacan, as cited by Brasseur de Bourbourg.] These authorities relate substantially the same course of events as the others, and refer them to approximately the same date; they tell us of the original theocratic republic ruled by independent chieftains who were subordinate to a central sacerdotal power; the determination finally reached to adopt a monarchical form of government; and the choice of a king, who does not seem to have been one of the tribal chieftains. But they attribute these acts to several more or less closely allied nations, of which that established at Tollan was only one, and not the chief. The sacerdotal supremacy attributed to the priesthood of Tollan under the name of Hueman, was really exercised by the priests of the sun at Teotihuacan; there were the deliberations held; and there probably did the first king receive the rites of coronation. The leading nation in Anáhuac at the time was that of the Chichimec Culhuas under Mixcohuatl Mazatzin; those at Tollan and Quauhtitlan, and perhaps others whose name has not been preserved, having been less powerful allies. The choice of the chiefs fell upon Nauhyotl, or Nauhyotzin, as the first Toltec king, and having been crowned probably at Teotihuacan, he established his capital at Culhuacan, then, as for a long time after the metropolis of Anáhuac, in 11 Calli, or 721 A.D. Of Nauhyotl's family and previous rank nothing is known. Whether he was a prince high in rank in a foreign land, identical with the Chalchiuh Tlatonac of Ixtlilxochitl, or, as Brasseur conjectures, sprung from the union of a native princess of the pre-Toltec tribes and a Chichimec Culhua chief, we have no means of determining. He was the first, so far as can be known, to assume the titles Tlatoani and Topiltzin,[389 - Respecting these titles see vol. ii., pp. 186-7, 201, vol. iii., p. 434.] both of which endured to the time of the Conquest, the former signifying 'lord' or 'monarch,' and implying the highest rank in matters temporal, as the latter in matters spiritual, corresponding very nearly with that of 'pope' in Catholic countries. The close connection between church and state in all the Nahua nations has been frequently pointed out in this work; as the Abbé Brasseur says, "the empire and the priesthood were one, and the ritual was the base of the throne. In order to firmly establish the monarchy, and ensure the fruits of their conquests, the Toltecs must rule not only the bodies but the conscience of their subjects. Where persuasion and the imposing spectacle of religious ceremonies were of no avail, violence and terror were resorted to, and insensibly the peoples of Mexico adopted the civilization of their masters together with their superstitious rites."[390 - Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 225.]

KINGDOM OF QUAUHTITLAN

In 725 Chicon Tonatiuh, assumed the title of Tlatoani and became king of Quauhtitlan, probably in some degree subordinate to the king at Culhuacan. The first mention by these authorities of a king in Tollan is to the effect that Mixcohuatl Mazatzin was called to that throne in 752. Meantime one of Mixcohuatl's sons, named Texcatlipocatl, afterwards deified as Tezcatlipoca, had founded the dominion of Tezcuco, and another son, named like his father Mixcohuatl, but better known and afterwards worshiped as Camaxtli, had continued the conquests of the Mixcohuas on the eastern plateau of Huitzilapan, or Tlascala.[391 - 'On regarda aussi comme des dieux Camaxtle et Tezcatlipuca qui vinrent de l'occident; mais ces prétendus dieux étaient sans doute des enchanteurs diaboliques et possédés du démon, qui pervertirent toutes ces nations.' Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 146. 'Fueron grandes capitanes esforzados y entre ellos valerosos hombres; los quales señorearon por grado ò por fuerza aquellas Provincias de Mexico, Tetzcuco y Tlaxcala, cuyos propios naturales a habitadores y aborigenes eran las gentes que se llaman Othomies.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. 122.] In 753 Chicon Tonatiuh, who had died two years before, was succeeded in Quauhtitlan by Xiuhnel; the new king was murdered soon after by his subjects, or as the tradition has it, was stabbed through the liver by a native woman in whose arms he was sleeping. A revolt followed, by which the Toltec power in that province was temporarily overthrown by the aboriginal inhabitants, whoever they may have been. In 767 Nauhyotl, king at Culhuacan, died and was succeeded by Totepeuh, identical with Mixcohua Camaxtli, also known as Nonohualcatl, and whose father was at the time reigning at Tollan. Early in the reign of Totepeuh a wide-spread war is vaguely reported as having been waged chiefly in the regions outside the valley. In this war the original inhabitants of the country, the Toltec tribes already settled there, and newly arrived Chichimec bands are vaguely mentioned as the combatants; Xochitzin, a beautiful princess possessed of supernatural powers, or at least holding communication with the gods and regarded as an oracle, was the prime mover in this war; Huactli was the most prominent leader, in full sympathy apparently with the Toltec sovereign; and at the end of the strife Huactli married Xochitzin and became king of the re-established dominion of Quauhtitlan in 804. Thirteen years later after a long reign Mixcohuatl Mazatzin, king of Tollan, died. He had been a very famous warrior, one of the most prominent of all the Toltec chieftains in Anáhuac, and was in after years worshiped as one of the gods of war.[392 - See vol. ii., pp. 335-6, 351-2, vol. iii., pp. 118, 403-6.] His successor was Huetzin, whom Brasseur conjectures to have been a son of the late king and identical with Tezcatlipoca.

THE TEOAMOXTLI, OR DIVINE BOOK

Returning now to the other version of Toltec history we learn that after the death of the first king of Tollan, his son Ixtlilcuechahuac mounted the throne.[393 - Ixtlilcuechahuac, otherwise called Tzacatecatl, Tlaltecatl, and Tlachinotzin, in 771 A.D. Veytia, tom. i., p. 231. 608. Ixtlilxochitl, p. 450. Ixliuechahuexe or Tzacatcatl, 614. Id., p. 325. Ixtlilcuechanac or Tlaltecatl Huetzin. Id., p. 393. Tlilquechahuac Tlalchinoltzin, 572. Id., p. 207. Tlilque Chaocatlahinoltzin. Id., p. 460. Aixtilcuechahuac. Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 11. 719 A.D. Clavigero, tom. i., p. 127. Was reigning in 660. Boturini, Idea, p. 139. The preceding hardly confirms Brasseur's statement that 'toutes les Relations d'Ixtlilxochitl concordent ici avec le Codex Chimalp., pour donner le nom de Huetzin au second roi de Tollan.' This is a pretty fair sample of the abbé's references.] His reign, like that of his predecessor, was peaceful and prosperous; but the only event recorded was a meeting of all the sages under the direction of the aged Hueman, which took place only a few years before the end of the second king's term of office. At this assembly there were brought forward all the Toltec records reaching back to the earliest period of their existence, and from these documents, after a long conference and the most careful study, the Teoamoxtli, or 'book of God,' was prepared. In its pages were inscribed the Nahua annals from the time of the deluge, or even from the creation; together with all their religious rites, governmental system, laws and social customs; their knowledge respecting agriculture and all the arts and sciences, particular attention being given to astrology; and a complete explanation of their modes of reckoning time and interpreting the hieroglyphics. To the divine book was added a chapter of prophecies respecting future events and the signs by which it should be known when the time of their fulfillment was drawing near.

After the completion of the Teoamoxtli, Hueman, now three hundred years old, announced his approaching end and made known to the Toltecs their future. After ten cycles had elapsed from the time when they left Huehue Tlapallan, they were to be ruled by a king whose right to the royal power would not be undisputed among his subjects. From his mother's womb he would have certain personal peculiarities by which he might be known; his curly hair would assume the form of a mitre or tiara. The earlier years of his reign were to be years of great prosperity; his rule would be wise, just, and able. In middle life the king would abandon the ways of wisdom and virtue, giving himself up to all manner of vice leading infallibly to disaster; and worst of all his subjects would imitate his vicious conduct and share in his misfortunes. Great calamities were to come upon the Toltecs, sent by Tloque Nahuaque, the great God, and like unto these with which their ancestors were afflicted in the remote past. Finally the kingdom was to be destroyed by civil wars, and the king, driven from his possession, after nearly all his subjects had perished, was to return to the ancient home of their race, there in his later years to become once more wise and discreet. Yet a sign was not denied this fated people; for certain unnatural phenomena were to announce their destruction as drawing nigh. When the rabbit should have horns like a deer, and the humming-bird be found with spurs, and stones yield fruit; when the priests of the temples should forget their vows of chastity with noble ladies, pilgrims to the shrines of the god – then might they look for the fulfillment of Hueman's predictions; for lightnings and hail and snow, for famine and pestilence and devouring insects, to be followed by desolating wars. For such as escaped these disasters, or for their descendants, another visitation of divine wrath was reserved in the form of a foreign people from the east, who ten cycles later were to take possession of the country in fulfillment of the words of the ancient prophet Quetzalcoatl. No further information is given of Hueman's death or of Ixtlilcuechahuac's rule.

Huetzin, the third king, was crowned, according to Veytia's chronology, in 823,[394 - 666, or 613. Ixtlilxochitl, who also writes the name Huetzin Totepeuh and Huitzin. 771. Clavigero.] a date that very nearly agrees with that given in the other version, or 817. Totepeuh,[395 - Totepauh and Totepeuhque. Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 326, 460; on p. 450 his reign is ignored.] the fourth, elsewhere mentioned as second king at Culhuacan, took the throne from his father after fifty-two years; and handed it down after a like period to his own son Nacaxoc,[396 - Nacazxoc. Torquemada, and Vetancvrt. Nacaxzoch, Nacalxur, Nacaxoc Mitl, and Nacazxot. Ixtlilxochitl, who on pp. 450 and 393 calls him the fourth king.] the fifth monarch at Tollan, who was in turn succeeded by Mitl in 979.[397 - Veytia. 927 according to Clavigero. 822 or 768 according to Ixtlilxochitl, who calls him Tlacomihua on pp. 207, 460, names him as fifth king on p. 393, and ignores his reign on p. 450.] These reigns, the last of which lasted fifty-nine years, were marked by the occurrence of no event specially important, though in all great progress was made, new towns founded, old cities beautified, and new temples built, including one of great magnificence at Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca, possibly Xochicalco) and another at Tollan intended to rival that of the Sun at Teotihuacan, which city is incidentally admitted to have surpassed Tollan in extent and magnificence. During this period the Toltec power was firmly established over a broad territory, and there were yet no tokens of approaching destruction.[398 - For the annals of Tollan during this period see Ixtlilxochitl, pp. 207, 325-6, 393, 450, 460; Veytia, tom. i., pp. 239-58; Torquemada, tom. i., p. 37. Clavigero, tom. i., pp. 127-8; Sahagun, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 114; Boturini, Idea, pp. 139-40; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., p. 11; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 524.]

TOTEPEUH KING OF TOLLAN

VENGEANCE OF QUETZALCOATL

In the annals of Culhuacan we left Totepeuh on the throne. His first military expedition was directed towards the eastern plateau, where Chalchiuhapan, later Tlascala, seems to have been founded at about this time, and where this king was afterwards worshiped under his name of Camaxtli. In his next expedition, to the province of Huitznahuac, he encountered, defeated after many fruitless attempts, and finally married a bold princess Chimalman, who fought entirely naked at the head of a body of amazons. The conquest of Cuitlahuac next claimed his attention, for this was the only city on the lakes that had been able to withstand the power of his father and predecessor. To this city and this period Brasseur traces back the foundation of the Nahual Teteuctin, an order of chivalry, whence proceeded the highest titles of learning and nobility, down to the coming of the Spaniards.[399 - Chief among which titles was that of Tecuhtli, respecting which see vol. ii., pp. 194-200.] Queen Chimalman, becoming enceinte immediately after marriage, dreamed that she bore in her bosom a chalchiuite, or precious stone, and decided to name her son, predestined to a glorious career, Quetzalcoatl Chalchiuitl. At his birth, which occurred nine months later, the heir was named also Ceacatl, probably from the day on which he was born. In addition to his mother's dream and the auguries drawn from it, the fact that Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl united in his veins the noblest blood of the Toltecs and the pre-Toltec peoples, gave special import to his birth, and the event was celebrated with great pomp at Culhuacan, and gifts of great value were sent from all directions.[400 - 'On célébra de grandes fêtes à la naissance de Colchacovat.' Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 146. See also note 6 (#cn_378) of this chapter.] 839 is the approximate date to which Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl's birth is referred; his mother died in childbed, and the child was entrusted to the king's sister Cohuatl, a priestess of the temple, perhaps the same as Cihuacoatl, or Cioacoatl, afterwards deified as the goddess of childbirth.[401 - See vol. ii., pp. 269, 434, 608, vol. iii., pp. 350, 363.] In 845 King Totepeuh Nonohualcatl himself, now far advanced in years, was murdered by conspiring nobles under the leadership of Apanecatl, Zolton, and Cuilton; he was succeeded by Yohuallatonac, and at the same time Ihuitimal, – a name that bears no resemblance to that of Huetzin's successor according to the Spanish writers, – took Huetzin's place on the throne of Tollan. Brasseur believes that Huetzin left Tollan to become king at Culhuacan, and that he was the same as Yohuallatonac. It must be noted that the confused state of the aboriginal annals is due not only to the incompleteness of the native records – many having been destroyed – and the errors of interpreters, but also largely to the unfortunate custom of the Nahua peoples of giving many names to the same person, and multiplying names apparently in proportion to fame and rank. It is recorded that Ceacatl, while yet a boy, wreaked a terrible vengeance on the murderers of his father. The latter took refuge in the fortress of Cuitlahuac on one of the lake islands deemed impregnable, but by a subterranean passage leading under the waters, the prince and his followers gained access to fort and temple. The leaders of the conspiracy were sprinkled with red pepper after a preparatory flaying and mangling, and dying in indescribable torture were sacrificed to the memory of Totepeuh, the first of the many thousand victims subsequently offered to the same divinity under his name of Camaxtli. From this time nothing whatever is recorded of Ceacatl for about twenty years, until he re-appears under his name of Quetzalcoatl as the most celebrated of the Toltec kings and high-priests, afterwards deified like most heroes of this early time.

The only event recorded before the re-appearance of Quetzalcoatl is one of great importance, a convention of the princes and wise men of Anáhuac and vicinity. At this assemblage the system of government and the laws of succession were perfected and as may be supposed given substantially the form which they preserved down to the Conquest; but the most important act was the establishment of an alliance between the crowns of Culhuacan, Otompan, and Tollan. Each king was to be perfectly independent in the affairs of his own domain; but in matters affecting the general interests the three monarchs were to constitute a council, in which the king of Culhuacan was to rank first, assuming a title nearly equivalent to that of Emperor. Otompan took the second place and Tollan the third. This is the first mention of Otompan as a capital, but since its domain seems to have included the territory of Teotihuacan and Tezcuco, its prominent position in the league is not improbable. The establishment of this alliance, or, as it may be more conveniently termed, empire, is referred to the date 1 Tecpatl, 856.[402 - This alliance rests altogether on the Codex Chimalpopoca and Mem. de Culhuacan. It is to be noted that Brasseur refers clearly to Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., lib. xi., cap. 18, as an authority, which chapter contains not a word bearing on the subject.]

CEACATL QUETZALCOATL

Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl re-appears in history, still following the same authorities, about the year 870, and succeeded Ihuitimal as king of Tollan, assuming the title Topiltzin, on the death of that king in 873.[403 - Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 37, relates the succession of the Toltec kings at Tollan, agreeing substantially with the accounts of Ixtlilxochitl, Veytia, and the rest. It is to be noted, however, that on page 254 the same author gives another account, inextricably confused, totally disagreeing with the preceding, but agreeing in most of its names, with that derived by Brasseur from the two records in his possession. This proves that the version of the Toltec traditions followed by the Spanish writers, referring everything to Tollan and ignoring all other nations and kings, was not the only one extant when the Spaniards came. It confirms to a certain extent Brasseur's account of other Toltec nations and monarchs besides those at Tollan, and is therefore important. I translate this version of the tradition from Torquemada, without any attempt to reconcile its many inconsistencies with itself and the versions already presented. It has the appearance of a successive interpretation of the records of distinct kingdoms, or distinct periods, tacked together and referred vaguely to Toltec history by a writer who did not suspect the existence of any other power than that at Tollan. 'When the Mexicans arrived in this region of Tulla, it was already settled by many people; because, according to the truth as found in the most authentic histories of these nations, in 700 A.D., they began to settle here. Their first captain, or leader, was named Totepeuh, who lived a long and tranquil life, being a bold and famous chieftain. At his death those of the province of Tulla raised to the throne another called Topil [Topiltzin], who reigned fifty years and was succeeded by Huemac, mentioned elsewhere in connection with the tricks of Quetzalcohuatl. [These are among the very last rulers in Tollan by other accounts.] This Huemac was a very powerful king, who was much feared and caused himself to be worshiped as a god. He went out from Tulla to increase the extent of his kingdom, occupying himself throughout his reign in gaining new provinces, preferring the bustle of war to the quiet of peace. But while he was engaged in wars abroad the Toltecs made Nauhyotzin king, who was the second lord, and of Chichimec birth. He also left Tullan and marched towards this lake with a large number of people to conquer as much as possible of the territory thereabouts. He reigned more than sixty years, and at his death the kingdom was given to Quauhtexpetlatl, [a name not appearing elsewhere] who in his turn was followed by Huetzin Nonohualcatl [according to Brasseur, Huetzin probably succeeded Nonohualcatl at Culhuacan. All that follows probably belongs to the Chichimec period much later, and relates to the kings of Culhuacan]. After him reigned Achitometl, and, afterwards, Quauhtonal, and in the tenth year of his reign the Mexicans arrived at Chapultepec; so that when the said Mexicans were in the city or province of Tulla, this prince was neither its king or lord (as Gomara says), but continuing the account and succession of these Toltec kings, we say that the said Achitometl was succeeded by Mazatzin, [and not by Quauhtonal as above. This is unintelligible. Mazatzin was, according to Brasseur, the first king at Tollan] and he by Quetzal. After him came Chalchiuhtona, and then Quauhtlix, then Yohuallatonac, followed by Tziuhtecatl. It is said that in the third year of this king's reign the Mexicans arrived where the city of Mexico now is. At Tziuhtecatl's death, Xiuhtemoctzin succeeded to the throne, and he was followed by Coxcotzin.' Then follows an account of the coming of Quetzalcoatl and his companions, in which the author is evidently much confused between the first and second of that name.Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 301-2, gives a similar account, differing, however, in orthography and in some of the successions. The order of succession, according to this writer, is in substance as follows: 1st. Totepeuch, in 721, who died over 100 years after their arrival. 2d. Topil, son of the former, ruled about 50 years. An interregnum ensued of over 110 years; either had no kings or their names are forgotten. 3d, 4th. Two rulers chosen, Vemac and Nauhiocin, the latter a Chichimec. Both left Tollan with their followers; the latter settled near the lake, and reigned over 60 years. 5th. Quauhtexpetlatl. 6th. Vecin. 7th. Nonoualcatl. [We have seen that Torquemada unites these two names in one king.] 8th. Achitometl. 9th. Quauhtonal, in the 10th year of whose reign came the Mexicans to Chapultepec. 10th. Mazacin. 11th. Queza. 12th. Chalchiuhtona. 13th. Quauhtlix. 14th. Iohuallatonac. 15th. Ciuhtetl. 16th. Xiuiltemoc. 17th. Cuxcux, and so on with the Chichimec and Aztec kings of much later periods. It is very evident that these writers had access to the same documents which Brasseur uses, but did not comprehend their meaning.] All the Spanish writers have much to say of Quetzalcoatl, although none of them – except Sahagun, who expresses himself very clearly on the subject —[404 - 'En esta ciudad (Tollan) reinó muchos años un rey llamado Quetzalcoatl, gran nigromántico, é inventor de la nigromancia,' etc. Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 266.] seem to have regarded him as one of the Toltec kings in the regular order of succession to the throne; and their accounts are inextricably confused by reason of their having made no distinction between Quetzalcoatl the original culture-hero, and Quetzalcoatl, the pontiff-ruler of Tollan, applying indiscriminately to one person all the traditions in which the name occurred. I will give first the regular Spanish version of these traditions.

Mendieta records the tradition that he was the son of Camaxtli and Chimalman, and also another to the effect that Chimalman became pregnant by swallowing a chalchiuite, which she found when sweeping; but other authorities, without going back to his birth, represent him as appearing on the eastern coast, most of them agreeing on the region of Pánuco as the locality. He was tall, well formed, with broad forehead and large eyes, of fair complexion, with long black hair[405 - Brasseur, tom. i., p. 255, misinterpreting Torquemada, tom. i., p. 255, calls him blonde; in another place, tom. ii., p. 48, Torquemada distinctly states that he has black hair.] and a full beard. Bare as to his head and feet, he wore a long white robe ornamented with black flowers, according to Las Casas, or with black or red crosses, as other writers say, supporting his steps with a staff. He was austere in manner, but in character all that is good, and gentle, disapproving all acts of violence and blood, and withal most chaste, neither marrying nor knowing women. With him was a large company of artists and men learned in every branch of science, whom some of the authors seem to consider a colony from a foreign land. From Pánuco Quetzalcoatl, with his companions, came to Tollan after having tarried for some time, as Camargo tells us, at Tulancingo. He was at first received by the Toltecs with much enthusiasm, and during his stay in Tollan filled the position of high-priest or supreme spiritual ruler. His rule was mild, but he insisted on a strict performance of all religious duties, and subjected himself to severe penances, such as the drawing of blood from tongue and limbs by means of maguey-thorns. He was not without supernatural powers, since his announcements made by a crier from the top of a neighboring mountain could be heard for a distance of three hundred miles. He introduced many new religious rites, including the practice of fasting and the drawing of blood from their own body by penitents, also according to some authorities, the establishment of convents and nunneries, and the sacrifice of birds and animals; to human sacrifices he was ever opposed. He was a patron of all the arts and sciences, which in his time reached their highest state of development.[406 - The invention of the calendar attributed to him by Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., pp. 97-8, Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vii., p. 264, and others, should evidently be referred to the Quetzalcoatl of other times.] Finally, Quetzalcoatl left Tollan and went to Cholula, which city with others on the eastern plateau, some authors – still referring to another Quetzalcoatl, and another epoch – credit him with having founded. There are many versions of his motives for abandoning Tollan, most referring to certain troubles between him and a rival Huemac or Tezcatlipoca. Playing ball with Tezcatlipoca, the latter assumed the form of a tiger, scared the spectators so that many fell over a precipice, and pursued his opponent from town to town until he reached Cholula; or he was driven away by the tricks of a sorcerer named Titlacaâon, or Titlacahua, who appeared in the form of an old man. By dint of much persuasion the magician induced Quetzalcoatl, who was unwell, to drink a medicine which he had brought, recommended to act as a narcotic. The medicine proved to be pulque, the high-priest was soon intoxicated, and in this condition was easily persuaded that by going to the ancient country of Tlapallan he might regain his youth. The other tricks of this sorcerer are many, but they seem to belong to the final overthrow of the Toltec empire rather than to Quetzalcoatl's time. Many details are given of the high-priest's journey towards Tlapallan, of the places through which he passed, and the wonderful traces which he left. He is generally credited with having stopped a short time at Quauhtitlan, and with having lived some years at Cholula, where he was especially popular, and where in after years his doctrines found their most devoted followers. But his chief enemy, Huemac, and the necromancers followed him even to Cholula with their persecutions, and he was forced to set out again on his journey towards Tlapallan. He finally disappeared in the Goazacoalco region, after predicting the future coming of bearded white men from the east. I have given here only a brief outline of the traditions respecting Quetzalcoatl, because a full account has been presented in another volume, to which the reader is referred.[407 - See vol. iii., pp. 239-87; also Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 161-205; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., pp. 82-3, 92-3, 97-8; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 255, 282, 380, tom. ii., pp. 20, 48-52, 79; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. ii.; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. 122, 173; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 243-8, 25-9; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 11-13; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 300; Camargo, Hist. Tlax., in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 145; Ternaux-Compans, in Id., 1840, tom. lxxxvi., pp. 16-20; Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., pp. 66-9; Tylor's Researches, pp. 154-5.]

FLIGHT OF QUETZALCOATL

The supposition that Quetzalcoatl was a member of the Toltec royal family and reigned as a king at Tollan, together with the evident confounding in the traditions as recorded by the Spanish writers of two distinct persons named Quetzalcoatl,[408 - By calling them distinct persons it is not necessarily implied that the first Quetzalcoatl ever had a real existence.] remove most of the difficulties connected with this famous personage, the second of the name. It seems to me most probable that the traditions relating to Quetzalcoatl's foreign origin or his long absence in distant parts of the country, his arrival at Pánuco, and his final disappearance in the south – although these are all accepted by Brasseur – should be referred to the Quetzalcoatl of primitive times. The young prince, unable for some unrevealed reason, to obtain after his arrival at years of discretion the crown of his murdered father, retired to some city in or near Anáhuac, probably Tulancingo, where he first comes into notice, to bide his time. Here he settled on his future policy including some religious reforms, communicated with powerful friends throughout Anáhuac, and perfected his plans for recovering his lost throne. Some crosses and other relics seen by the Spaniards in the mountains of Meztitlan, were attributed by native tradition to Ceacatl's residence in Tulancingo.[409 - Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 171-2.] Such was the force of his claim as son of Totepeuh, and such the influence of the religious dogmas zealously promulgated by him and his disciples, that at last on the death of Ihuitimal, perhaps his brother, he was raised to the throne of Tollan, as has been said, in 873, under the title of Topiltzin Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl.

REIGN OF CEACATL

There is nothing in the Spanish version of the Quetzalcoatl traditions by which to fix the epoch in which he flourished. It is merely implied that Huemac, his chief enemy, was temporal ruler at the same time that he exercised the functions of high-priest, and succeeded him in power. Huemac is identified by Brasseur, not without some reason, with Nacaxoc, the fifth king of the Spanish writers, whose reign is represented by them as having been most peaceful and uneventful. He is also known as Tezcatlipoca, and was closely related to Yohuallatonac,[410 - Probably, as has been said, the same as Huetzin and Texcaltepocatl.] the king of Culhuacan. In the Codex Chimalpopoca he is called both Huemac and Matlacxochitl.

After Quetzalcoatl had been about ten years on the throne, opposition to his power, fomented by his enemies from the first, assumed serious proportions. Several causes are plausibly attributed by the records and their interpreters to this opposition. The new pontiff-king had effected many innovations in religious ceremonies. It does not appear that his doctrines differed very materially from those entertained by his predecessors, but the changes introduced by him had been so readily admitted by reason of the popularity and zeal of their author and his subordinates, as to excite jealousy among the ecclesiastical powers. Most prominent among his peculiar reforms, and the one that is reported to have contributed most to his downfall, was his unvarying opposition to human sacrifice. This sacrifice had prevailed from pre-Toltec times at Teotihuacan, and had been adopted more or less extensively in Culhuacan and Tollan. By Quetzalcoatl it was absolutely prohibited in the temples of the latter capital, and thus the powerful priesthood of Otompan, and Culhuacan was arrayed against him. Again it is thought that under Quetzalcoatl the spiritual power always closely connected with the temporal in Nahua governments, became so predominant as to excite the jealousy and fears of the nobility in Tollan, who were restive under a priestly restraint not imposed on their brothers of corresponding rank in the other nations of the empire. Finally, under the rule of Ceacatl, Tollan had become the metropolis of the empire. It does not appear that the terms of the alliance, according to which the monarch of Culhuacan outranked the others, had been changed; but in the magnificence of her palaces and temples, and the skill and fame of her artists, if not in population, Tollan now surpassed the cities of the valley, and thus naturally was looked upon as a too successful rival. The dissatisfied element at home was headed by Huemac, or Tezcatlipoca, who had perhaps some well-founded claim to the throne, and received the support of the allied monarchs. The ensuing struggle is symbolized in the record of the Spanish writers by the successive tricks of the necromancers; and the religious strife between rival sects was continued with more or less bitterness down to the latest Aztec epoch. Such was Quetzalcoatl's repugnance to the shedding of human blood, that he seems to have voluntarily abandoned his throne against the wishes of his more warlike partisans, and after a brief stay in Quauhtitlan, to have crossed to the eastern plateau of Huitzilapan in 895. Huemac, Tezcatlipoca, or Nacaxoc succeeded immediately to the royal power in Tollan.[411 - 875. Clavigero. 927. Veytia. 770 or 716. Ixtlilxochitl.]

CONQUEST OF CHOLULA

The teachings and influence of Quetzalcoatl had preceded him among the Olmec nations of the eastern region. His father, under the name of Camaxtli, had done more than any other to bring these nations under the Toltec power, had founded the city afterwards known as Tlascala, and was perhaps already worshiped as a deity. Moreover the Quetzalcoatl of old had traditionally introduced Nahua institutions in this region, where he was still the object of supreme veneration. Whether the city of Cholula was actually founded at this time or by the first Quetzalcoatl, it is impossible to determine,[412 - 'Los que de esta ciudad (Tollan) huyeron, edificaron otra muy próspera que se llama Cholulla.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. viii., p. 207.] but the coming of Ceacatl seems to have marked the beginning of a new era of prosperity on the eastern plateau. Temples in honor of Camaxtli were erected in Tlascala and Huexotzinco, while Cholula became the capital of what may almost be termed a new Toltec monarchy. All the southern and eastern provinces subject to the empire during Ceacatl's reign at Tollan, gave in their adhesion to him at Cholula. Large numbers of his partisans also followed him from Tollan, and all the primitive peoples, among whom human sacrifice in pre-Toltec times had been unknown, were glad to submit to the royal high-priest. His reign in Cholula lasted about ten years,[413 - See references already given on Quetzalcoatl, and also Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 265, et seq.] and during this time his doctrines are thought to have been introduced by disciples dispatched from Cholula into the southern regions of Oajaca.

In 904 Yohuallatonac was succeeded in Culhuacan by Quetzallacxoyatl, and Huemac, having subdued by his strict and severe measures all open opposition to his rule at home, but looking with much uneasiness on the prosperity of Ceacatl in his new capital, and the constant emigration of his own subjects eastward, resolved again to attack his former rival. At the head of a large army he directed his march towards Cholula. Quetzalcoatl as before, notwithstanding the remonstrance of his people, refused to resist his progress, but departed before Huemac's arrival for other lands as before related. Cholula, with the neighboring cities and provinces fell an easy prey to the valiant Huemac; but so long did he remain absent in his insatiable desire to conquer new territory, that his subjects revolted and with the co-operation of the king of Culhuacan proclaimed Nauhyotl king about the year 930.[414 - This king is called Mitl and Tlacomihua by Veytia and the rest. Dates: 927. Clavigero. Veytia, tom. i., p. 252, has 779, which may be a misprint for 979. 822 or 768. Ixtlilxochitl. Huemac's expedition eastward, and the crowning of Nauhyotl, or Nauhyotzin, during his absence is recorded by Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 254, and Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 301, as quoted in note 30 of this chapter.] Huemac did not yield without a struggle. Returning westward to defend his throne he met Nauhyotl on the lake shores; his army was routed and he was killed, or at least disappeared. As Tezcatlipoca and under various other titles he ever after ranked among the highest in the pantheon of Nahua divinities.[415 - Respecting Tezcatlipoca, fables respecting his life on earth, and his worship as a god, see vol. iii., pp. 199-248.]

During the ensuing era of peace among the Toltecs under Nauhyotl, or Mitl, and his allies, it seems that Cholula regained its prosperity, re-established the institutions and worship of Quetzalcoatl, and soon rivaled in magnificence Tollan, Culhuacan, and Teotihuacan. Still remaining to a certain extent a part of the Toltec empire, under the rule of the king at Tollan, Cholula seems to have preferred from this period a republican form of home rule, similar, if not identical, to that in vogue on the eastern plateau at the coming of the Spaniards.[416 - See vol. ii., pp. 141-2.] Four of Quetzalcoatl's chief disciples were charged with the establishment of a permanent government, which they entrusted to two supreme magistrates, one chosen from the priesthood and exercising the functions of high-priest under the title of Tlachiach or 'lord from on high,' and the other from the nobility being at the head of the civil government with the title Aquiach.

REIGN OF NAUHYOTL

The reign of Nauhyotl, or Mitl,[417 - Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 322, says that Ixtlilxochitl in one place calls this king Nauhyotl. Although I have been unable to find this statement in the works of the writer mentioned, yet there can be little doubt of the two kings' identity.] at Tollan was one of great prosperity and peace. The new king devoted all his energies to promoting the glory of his capital city, where he re-established nearly all the reforms instituted by Ceacatl and partially abolished by Huemac. He is represented as having looked with some uneasiness on the growing prosperity of Cholula, and on the pilgrimages continually undertaken by residents of Tollan to the eastern shrines; but instead of resorting like his predecessor to hostile measures, he determined to eclipse the glory of Cholula by the erection of new and magnificent temples at home. The finest of these temples was that built in honor of the Goddess of Water,[418 - Chalchihuitlicue, Toci, Teteionan, etc. See vol. iii., p. 350, et seq., p. 367, et seq.] or the Frog Goddess, to which was attached a college of priests vowed to celibacy. Meantime the worship of Camaxtli and Tlaloc were more firmly established than before at Tlascala and Huexotzinco, and grand temples were built in several Toltec provinces without Anáhuac, particularly in the south, one of the most famous being near Quauhnahuac, later Cuernavaca, the ruins of which may be supposed with some plausibility to be identical with those of Xochicalco.[419 - For description of Xochicalco see vol. iv., pp. 483-94.] After having restored Tollan to the position it had occupied under Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl, Nauhyotl died after a reign of fifteen years in 945.[420 - On Nauhyotl's reign, see Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 207, 326, 393, 450, 460; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 255-8; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 37; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., p. 127; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 11; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 319-31. The date 945 is from the Codex Chimalpopoca. The Spanish writers make his reign much longer, all except Clavigero representing him as having reigned, by the consent of his subjects, several years over the time prescribed by law. 979-1035. Veytia. 927-79. Clavigero. 822-80, or 768-826. Ixtlilxochitl. Torquemada and Gomara, as quoted in note 30, state that this king also marched eastward at the head of a large army to add to his domain by conquest.]

All the authorities agree that Nauhyotl was succeeded at his death by his queen Xiuhtlaltzin,[421 - Also Xiuhquentzin, Xiuliquentzin, and Xiuhzaltzin, Ixtlilxochitl, and Xiuhzaltzin, Vetancvrt.] who reigned four years, showing great zeal and wisdom in the management of public affairs, and dying deeply regretted by all her subjects.[422 - See references in note 47 (#cn_419) and following pages of each authority.] The Spanish writers name Tecpancaltzin as the successor of the lamented queen, referring to his reign and to that of his successor the events which brought about the overthrow of the Toltec empire. The Nahua records, however, represent queen Xiuhtlaltzin as having been followed by her son Matlaccoatl, who reigned from 949 to 973, and who in his turn was succeeded by Tlilcoatzin, ruling from 973 to 994, and preceding Tecpancaltzin, respecting whose reign these records agree to a great extent with the other authorities. We have no record of any specific events that occurred during the reign of the three sovereigns last mentioned, save that in Culhuacan Quetzallacxoyatl was succeeded in 953 by Chalchiuh Tlatonac, and the latter in 985 by Totepeuh, the second of the name.[423 - Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 331, 336. Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., p. 181, speaks of an interregnum of forty-eight years after the death of Queen Xiuhtlaltzin.]

I come now to the last century of the period to which this chapter is devoted, a century whose annals form a continuous record of civil and religious strife in Anáhuac, invasions by powerful bands from the adjoining regions on the north and north-west, pestilence and famine, resulting in the utter overthrow of the Toltec empire. There is somewhat less contradiction among the two classes of authorities quoted respecting the events of this century than in the case of those preceding. The Spanish writers still speak of Tollan, it is true, as if that city alone constituted the empire; but the Nahua documents also ascribe almost exclusively to Tollan the occurrences which caused the destruction of the Toltec power. The latter documents, however, still keep up the thread of historical events at Culhuacan and in other provinces, and they are doubtless much more reliable in the matter of dates than the Spanish version, besides narrating the invasions of foreign tribes, a disturbing element in Toltec politics almost entirely ignored by Ixtlilxochitl and his followers. Notwithstanding the general agreement of the authorities referred to, it must be noted that the record is but a succession of tales in which the marvelous and supernatural largely predominate, conveying a tolerably accurate idea of the general course of history during this period, but throwing very little light on its details. In accordance with my plan already announced, I have but to tell the tales as they are recorded; their general meaning is sufficiently apparent, and I shall offer but rarely conjectures respecting the specific significance of each.

REIGN OF HUEMAC II

Huemac II., also known as Tecpancaltzin,[424 - Called also Yztaccaltzin. Ixtlilxochitl. Atecpanecatl and Iztacquauhtzin. Codex Chimalpopoca and Ixtlilxochitl, according to Brasseur.] the eldest son of Totepeuh II. of Culhuacan, mounted the throne of Tollan in 994,[425 - 1039, 830, 884, according to the Spanish writers. See note 47 (#cn_419). Clavigero ignores this king, while Torquemada, followed by Boturini in Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., p. 230, and Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., p. 11, seems to identify him with his successor.] at a time when that city in respect of art and high culture was at the head of the empire, although Culhuacan still retained her original political supremacy, while both Teotihuacan and Cholula were rivals in the power and fame of their respective priesthood. There are no data for assigning even approximately exact limits to the Toltec empire at this period. It is probably, however, that while the Toltec was less absolute and despotic than the Aztec power in the sixteenth century, yet it was exerted throughout fully as wide an extent of territory, including Michoacan and a broad region in the north-west never altogether subjected to the Aztec kings. The Toltec domain had been enlarged gradually by the influence of the priesthood, particularly under Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl, until there were few provinces from Tehuantepec to Zacatecas, from the North to the South Sea, which did not render a voluntary allegiance to the allied monarchs of the central region. And at the same time it cannot be believed that foreign conquest by force of arms had so small a place among the events of Toltec history as the records would imply. Huemac II., unlike the first of the same name, belonged to the sect of Quetzalcoatl, using his power to restrain the practice of human sacrifice if not altogether abolishing it in the temples of Tollan. He even seems to have added the name of Quetzalcoatl to his other royal and pontifical titles, or possibly had this title before his coronation, as high-priest of the sect at Culhuacan. The application of this title to Huemac, and that of Tezcatlipoca to the high-priest of the rival sect, has been productive of no little confusion in the record, since it is sometimes impossible to decide whether certain events should be attributed to this reign or to the time of Ceacatl and Huemac I. The new king was endowed with fine natural qualifications for his position, and enjoyed to a remarkable degree the confidence and esteem of the people. During the first year he ruled with great wisdom, speaking but little, attending most strictly to the performance of his religious duties, and always prompt in the administration of justice to his subjects of whatever station; but the old fire of religious strife, though smouldering, was yet alive and ready to be fanned into a conflagration which should consume the whole Toltec structure. The leaders of the rival sect, followers of the bloody Tezcatlipoca and bitter enemies to all followers of Quetzalcoatl, although now in the minority were constantly intriguing for the fall of Huemac. But they well knew the popularity of their hated foe, and bent all their energies to the task of dragging him down from his lofty pedestal of popular esteem, by tempting him into the commission of acts unworthy of himself as high-priest, king, and successor of the great Quetzalcoatl. A scandal was to be created; wine and women were naturally the agents to be employed; the tale is a very strange one.

THE KING'S MISTRESS

Papantzin, a Toltec noble of high rank, presented himself one day at court, together with his daughter, the beautiful Xochitl,[426 - Ixtlilxochitl, p. 208, calls the name Quetzalxochitzin, and makes her the wife rather than the daughter of Papantzin.] bearing with other gifts to the king a kind of syrup and sugar made from maguey-juice by a process of which Papantzin was the inventor. This syrup is generally spoken of as pulque, but there seems to be little reason for making a fermented liquor of 'miel prieta de maguey.'[427 - Bustamante, in Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 246, erroneously charges Veytia with saying that Papantzin presented to the king a vessel of pulque invented by Xochitl. Brasseur, for reasons not very intelligible, refers to this period Sahagun's account of the invention of pulque in Olmec times (see pp. 207-8 (#Page_207) of this volume), and also the efforts of the sorcerers to make Quetzalcoatl drink pulque that he might be induced to leave Tollan. I have attributed these tales to the times of Ceacatl. See p. 259 (#Page_258) of this volume, also vol. iii., p. 242, 253, 261.] Whatever the nature of the syrup, it pleased the royal palate, and the lovely face and form of the young Xochitl were no less pleasing to the royal eye. The king expressed his appreciation of the new invention, and his desire to receive additional samples of the sweet preparation, at the same time telling the father that he would be pleased to receive such gifts at the hands of the daughter, who might visit him for such a purpose unattended save by a servant. Proud of the honor shown to his family, and without suspicion of evil intentions, Papantzin only a few days later sent Xochitl, accompanied by an elderly female attendant, with a new gift of maguey-syrup. The attendant was directed to await her mistress in a distant apartment of the palace, while Xochitl was introduced alone to the presence of Huemac. Bravely the maiden resisted the monarch's blandishments and protestations of ardent love, but by threats and force was compelled to yield her person to his embrace. She was then sent to the strongly-guarded palace of Palpan near the capital, and there, cut off from all communication with parents or friends, lived as the king's mistress. Her parents were notified that their daughter had been entrusted by Huemac to the care of certain ladies who would perfect her education and fit her for a prominent position among the ladies of the court and for a brilliant marriage. To Papantzin the royal manner of showing honor to his family seemed at best novel and strange, but he could suspect no evil intent on the part of the pious representative of Quetzalcoatl. New favors were subsequently shown the dishonored father, in the shape of lands and titles and promises. For three years Huemac continued his guilty amour in secret, and in the meantime, in 1002,[428 - 1051. Veytia. 900. Ixtlilxochitl.] a child was born, named Meconetzin, 'child of the maguey,' or at a later period Acxitl. According to the Codex Chimalpopoca the king during these three years gave himself up to the pleasures of the wine cup also, yielding to the temptations placed before him by the crafty followers of Tezcatlipoca, and during one of his drunken orgies revealed the secret of his love; but however this may have been, that secret was finally suspected; Papantzin in the disguise of a laborer visited the palace of Palpan, met his daughter with the young Meconetzin in her arms, and listened to the tale of her shame. The angry father seems to have been quieted with the promise that his daughter's son should be proclaimed heir to the throne, since the queen had borne her husband only daughters; but the scandal once suspected was spread far and wide by the priesthood of Tezcatlipoca, and the faith of the Toltecs in their saintly monarch was shaken. The queen having died, Xochitl with her young son was brought to the royal palace, and there is some reason to suppose that she was made Huemac's legitimate queen by a regular marriage. Very serious dissatisfaction, and even open hostility among the princes of highest rank, were excited by the king's actions, both on account of the shameful nature of such acts, and also because their own chance of future succession to the throne was destroyed by Huemac's avowed intention to make Acxitl his heir. Everything presaged a revolution, and the foes of Quetzalcoatl were cheered with hopes of approaching triumph. Huemac's mind was filled with trouble, which all the flattery of the court could not wholly remove, and the prospects of his family were not brightened by the fact that the young Acxitl from his birth had the physical peculiarities predicted by the prophet Hueman of olden time, in connection with such wide-spread and fatal disasters. Yet it was hoped that by careful instruction and training, even the decrees of fate might be reversed and impending disaster averted, especially as in childhood and youth prince Acxitl gave most cheering promise of future goodness and ability.[429 - See respecting the first part of Huemac's reign, Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 207, 328-9, 460; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., p. 262, et seq.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 37; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 337-48.]

TOVEYO'S ADVENTURES

Another event served to increase the troubles that began to gather about the throne. It appears that Huemac by his first queen Maxio had three daughters, who were much sought in marriage, rather for motives of political ambition, perhaps, than love, by the Toltec nobles. One especially was greatly beloved by her father and none of the many aspirants to her hand found favor in her eyes. One day while walking among the flowers in the royal gardens, she came upon a man selling chile. Some of the traditions say that the pepper-vender, Toveyo,[430 - Tobeyo. Sahagun. Tohuéyo, 'our neighbor.' Brasseur. It does not seem to have been originally a proper name.] was Tezcatlipoca who had assumed the appearance of a plebeian; at any rate he was entirely naked and awakened in the bosom of the princess a love for which her Toltec suitors had sighed in vain. So violent was her passion as to bring on serious illness, the cause of which was told by her maids to Huemac, and the indulgent father, though very angry with Toveyo at first, finally, as the only means of restoring his daughter to health, sought out the plebeian vender of pepper and forced him, perhaps not very much against his will, to be washed and dressed and to become the husband of the love-sick princess. This marriage caused great dissatisfaction and indignation among the Toltecs; an indignation that is easily understood, however the legend be interpreted. In case a literal interpretation be accepted, the upper classes in Tollan may naturally have been shocked by the admission of a low-born peasant to the royal family; on the other hand the version given may have originated with the disappointed suitors, who gratified their spite by reviling the successful Toveyo. It is also possible that the legend symbolizes by this marriage the granting of new privileges to the lower classes against the will of the nobility; however this may be, the result was wide-spread discontent ready to burst forth in open revolt.[431 - For a fuller account of the tale of Toveyo, see vol. iii., pp. 243-4. Also, Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 247-9.]

Among the disaffected lords who openly revolted against Tollan, Cohuanacotzin, Huehuetzin, Xiuhtenancaltzin, and Mexoyotzin[432 - Cohuanacox, Huetzin, Xiuhtenan, and Mexoyotzin.] are mentioned, by Ixtlilxochitl as rulers of provinces on the Atlantic, by Veytia as lords of regions extending from Quiahuiztlan (according to Brasseur, Vera Cruz) northward along the coast of the North Sea to a point beyond Jalisco. Respecting the events of this revolution of Toltec provinces thus vaguely located, we have only the continuation of Toveyo's adventures, which seems to belong to this war. The tale runs that Huemac, somewhat frightened at the storm of indignation which followed his choice of a son-in-law, sent him out to fight in the wars of Cacatepec and Coatepec, giving secret orders that he should be so stationed in battle as to be inevitably killed. The main body of the Toltec army yielded to the superior numbers of the foe and fled to Tollan, leaving Toveyo and his followers to their fate; but the latter, either by his superior skill or by his powers as a magician, notwithstanding the small force at his command, utterly routed the enemy and returned in triumph to the capital, where the king and people received him with great honors and public demonstrations of joy. For a time the kingdom seems to have remained without disturbance, and fortune once more smiled on Huemac.[433 - Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 207, 393; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., p. 271, et seq.; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 249-51. Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 356-60, represents Cohuanacox and Meyoxotzin as lords of Quiahuiztlan-Anahuac, or Vera Cruz, but gives no farther details of their revolt. Huetzin, he calls the Prince of Jalisco, stating that he marched at the head of a large army against Huemac, but was defeated at Coatepec near Tollan by the bravery of Toveyo, who drove him with great loss back to the frontiers of Jalisco. For these facts he refers to no other authorities than those mentioned in this note, and these contain no such information.]

OMENS OF DESTRUCTION

As to the exact order in which occurred the subsequent disasters by which the Toltec empire was overthrown, the authorities differ somewhat, although agreeing tolerably well respecting their nature. Many events ascribed by Brasseur to Huemac's reign are by Veytia and others described as having happened in that of his successor. There can, however, be but little hesitation in following the chronology of the Nahua documents often referred to, in preference to that of the Spanish writers. The latter is certainly erroneous; the former at the worst is only probably so. With his returning prosperity the king seems to have returned to his evil ways while the partizans of Tezcatlipoca resumed their intrigues against him. The sorcerer assembled a mighty crowd near Tollan, and kept them dancing to the music of his drum until midnight, when by reason of the darkness and their intoxication they crowded each other off a precipice into a deep ravine, where they were turned to stone. A stone bridge was also broken by the necromancer and crowds precipitated into the river.[434 - Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 251. Brasseur has no difficulty in interpreting this tale to indicate an earthquake.] Other wonderful acts of the sorcerer against the well-being of the Toltecs as related by Sahagun have been given in another volume.[435 - See vol. iii., pp. 245-8.] From one of the neighboring volcanoes a flood of glowing lava poured, and in its lurid light appeared frightful spectres threatening the capital. A sacrifice of captives in honor of Tezcatlipoca, was decided upon to appease the angry gods, a sacrifice which Huemac was forced to sanction. But when a young boy, chosen by lot as the first victim, was placed upon the altar and the obsidian knife plunged into his breast, no heart was found in his body, and his veins were without blood. The fetid odor exhaled from the corpse caused a pestilence involving thousands of deaths. The struggles of the Toltecs to get rid of the body have been elsewhere related.[436 - Vol. iii., p. 247. The other details, like the interview with the Tlalocs, are from the Codex Chimalpopoca.] Next the Tlaloc divinities appeared to Huemac as he walked in the forest, and were implored by him not to take from him his wealth and his royal splendor. The gods were wroth at this petition, his apparent selfishness, and want of penitence for past sins, and they departed announcing their purpose to bring plagues and suffering upon the proud Toltecs for six years. The winter of 1018 was so cold that all plants and seeds were killed by frost, and was followed by a hot summer, which parched the whole surface of the country, dried up the streams, and even calcined the solid rocks.

PLAGUES SENT UPON THE TOLTECS

Here seem to belong the series of plagues described by the Spanish writers, although attributed by them to the following reign.[437 - Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 207-8, 329-30; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., p. 280, et seq. Dates, 1097, et seq. Veytia. 984, et seq. Ixtlilxochitl. There is no agreement about the duration of the plagues. They seem, however, to have been continuous for at least five years.] The plagues began with heavy storms of rain, destroying the ripening crops, flooding the streets of towns, continuing for a hundred days, and causing great fear of a universal deluge. Heavy gales followed, which leveled the finest buildings to the ground; and toads in immense numbers covered the ground, consuming everything edible and even penetrating the dwellings of the people. The next year unprecedented heat and drought prevailed, rendering useless all agricultural labor, and causing much starvation. Next heavy frosts destroyed what little the heat had spared, not even the hardy maguey surviving; and then came upon the land great swarms of birds and locusts and various insects. Lightning and hail completed the work of devastation, and as a result of all their afflictions Ixtlilxochitl informs us that nine hundred of every thousand Toltecs perished. Huemac and his followers were held responsible for disasters that had come upon the people; a hungry mob of citizens and strangers crowded the street of Tollan and even invaded the palace of the nobles, instigated and headed by the partizans of Tezcatlipoca; and the king was even forced at one time to abandon the city for a time. The Codex Chimalpopoca represented the long rain already referred to as having occurred at the end of six years' drought and famine, and to have inaugurated a new season of plenty. Ixtlilxochitl refers to bloody wars as among the evils of the time. All we may learn from the confused accounts, is that the Toltec empire at that period was afflicted with war, famine, and pestilence; and that these afflictions were attributed to the sins of Huemac II., by his enemies and such of the people as they could influence.

After the plagues were past, and prosperity had again begun to smile upon the land, Huemac abandoned his evil ways and gave his whole attention to promoting the welfare of his people; but he still clung with fatal obstinacy to his purpose of placing his son on the throne, and determined to abdicate immediately in favor of Acxitl. His father, king of Culhuacan, died in 1026, and the crown, to which Huemac himself, as the eldest son would seem to have been entitled, passed to Totepeuh's second son, Nauhyotl II. It is possible that Huemac consented to this concession in consideration of the support of the new king in his own projects at Tollan. After thoroughly canvassing the sentiments of his vassal lords, and conciliating the good will of the wavering by a grant of new honors and possessions, he publicly announced his intention to place Acxitl on the throne. The immediate consequence was a new revolt, and from an unexpected source, since it was abetted if not originated by the followers of Quetzalcoatl, who deemed Acxitl, the child of adulterous love, an unworthy successor of their great prophet. Maxtlatzin was the most prominent of the many nobles who espoused the rebel cause, and Quauhtli was the choice of the malcontents for the rank of high-priest of Quetzalcoatl. To such an extremity was the cause of Huemac and his son reduced that they were forced to a compromise with the two leaders of the revolt, who consented to support the cause of Acxitl on condition of being themselves raised to the highest rank after the son of Huemac, and of forming with him a kind of triumvirate by which the kingdom should be ruled. All the authorities agree respecting this compromise, although only the documents consulted by Brasseur speak of open revolt as the cause which led to it. It is evident, however, that nothing but the most imminent danger could have induced the king of Tollan to have entered into so humiliating an arrangement. Immediately after the consummation of the new alliance, the 'child of the maguey' was crowned king and high-priest with great ceremony in 1029, under the title of Topiltzin Acxitl Quetzalcoatl. Topiltzin is the name by which he is usually called by the Spanish writers, although it was in reality, like that of Quetzalcoatl, a title held by several kings. Acxitl is the more convenient name, as distinguishing him clearly from his father and from Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl. Huemac and Queen Xochitl retired ostensibly from all connection with public affairs.[438 - Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 207, 329, 393, 460. This author's dates are 937 and 882. Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 271-4. Date 1091. Date according to Clavigero, 1031. Codex Chimalpopoca, in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 370-5; Maxtlatzin is called the prince of Xochimilco. According to the Mem. de Culhuacan, in Id., Huemac died at this time.]

EXCESSES OF ACXITL

The three lords of distant provinces, Huehuetzin, Xiuhtenancaltzin, and Cohuanacotzin, who had once before rebelled against the king of Tollan, now refused their allegiance to Acxitl; but at first they for some reason, perhaps their own difficulties with the wild tribes about them, engaged in no open hostilities. The new monarch, then about forty years of age, justified the high promise of his youth, and guided by the sage counsels of his reformed father, ruled most wisely for several years, gradually gaining the confidence of his subjects. But the decrees of the gods were infallible, and Acxitl, like his father before him, yielded to temptation and plunged into all manner of lasciviousness and riotous living. So low did he fall as to make use of his position of high-priest to gratify his evil passions. His inciters and agents were still Tezcatlipoca and his crafty partisans, who persuaded ladies of every rank that by yielding to the king's embraces they would merit divine favor. The royal example was followed by both nobles and priests. High church dignitaries and priestesses of the temples consecrated to life-long chastity forgot all their vows; force was employed where persuasion failed. So openly were the requirements of morality disregarded, that the high-priestess of the Goddess of the Water, a princess of royal blood, on a pilgrimage to the temple of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula, lived openly with the chief pontiff of that city and bore him a son, who afterwards succeeded to the highest ecclesiastical rank. Vice took complete possession of society in all its classes, spreading to cities and provinces not under the immediate authority of Tollan. Public affairs were left to be managed by unscrupulous royal favorites; the prayers of the aged Huemac and Xochitl to the gods, like their remonstrances with Acxitl, were unavailing; crimes of all kinds remained unpunished; robbery and murder were of frequent occurrence; and the king was justly held responsible for all.

But Acxitl was at last brought to his senses, and his fears if not his conscience were thoroughly aroused. Walking in his garden one morning, he saw a small animal of peculiar appearance, with horns like a deer, which, having been killed, proved to be a rabbit. Shortly after he saw a huitzilin, or humming-bird, with spurs, a most extraordinary thing. Topiltzin Acxitl was familiar with the Teoamoxtli, or 'divine book,' and with Huemac's predictions; well he knew, and was confirmed in his opinion by the sages and priests who were consulted, that the phenomena observed were the tokens of final disaster. The king's reformation was sudden and complete; the priests held out hopes that the prodigies were warnings, and that their consequences might possibly be averted by prayer, sacrifice, and reform. The Spanish writers introduce at this period the series of plagues, which I have given under Huemac's reign; and Brasseur adds to the appearance of the rabbit and the humming-bird two or three of the wonderful events attributed by Sahagun to the necromancer Titlacaâon, without any reason that I know of for ascribing these occurrences to this particular time. Such were the appearance of a bird bearing an arrow in its claws and menacingly soaring over the doomed capital; the falling of a great stone of sacrifice near the present locality of Chapultepec; and the coming of an old woman selling paper flags which proved fatal to every purchaser.[439 - Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 254.] These events occurred in 1036 and the following years. The king was wholly unable to check the torrent of vice which was flowing over the land; indeed, in his desire to atone for his past faults, he seems to have resorted to such severe measures as to have defeated his own aims, converting his former friends and flatterers into bitter foes.

CHICHIMEC INVASION

In the midst of other troubles came the news that Huehuetzin was marching at the head of the rebel forces towards Tollan, and was already most successful on the northern frontier. The other two lords from the gulf coasts, who had refused to acknowledge the power of Acxitl, were in league with Huehuetzin. Unable to resist this formidable army, the Toltec king was compelled to send ambassadors bearing rich presents to sue for peace, – according to the Spanish writers at the capitals of the distant rebellious provinces; but as Brasseur says to the headquarters of the hostile army not very far from Tollan. The presents were received, but no satisfactory agreement seems to have been made at first. Veytia and Ixtlilxochitl speak vaguely of a truce that was concluded as a result of this or a subsequent embassy, to the effect that the Toltecs should not be molested for ten years, an old military usage requiring that ten years should always intervene between the declaration of war and the commencement of hostilities; and the latter states that the army was withdrawn in the meantime, because sufficient supplies could not be obtained in the territory of the Toltecs. Brasseur, without referring to any other authorities than those named, tells us that after remaining a whole year near Tollan, Huehuetzin was forced to return to his own province to repel the invasions of hostile tribes, which tribes, it is implied, were induced to come southward and to harass the Toltec nations.[440 - Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i., pp. 282-7; Ixtlilxochitl, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 329-31; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 376-85.]

Taking advantage of the precarious condition of the Toltecs, many of the tribes even in and about Anáhuac shook off all allegiance to the empire, and became altogether independent; and at the same time numerous Chichimec tribes from abroad took advantage of the favorable opportunity to secure homes in the lake region. These foreign tribes are all reported to have come from the north, but it is extremely doubtful if any accurate information respecting the invaders has been preserved. For the conjecture that all or any of them came from the distant north, from California, Utah, or the Mississippi Valley, there are absolutely no grounds; although it is of course impossible to prove that all came from the region adjoining Anáhuac. By far the most reasonable conjecture is that the invaders were the numerous Nahua bands who had settled in the west and north-west, in Michoacan, Jalisco, and Zacatecas, about the same time that the nations called Toltecs had established themselves in and about Anáhuac. Brasseur finds in his authorities, the only ones that give any particulars of the invaders, that among the first Chichimec bands to arrive were the Acxotecas and Eztlepictin, both constituting together the Teotenancas. The Eztlepictin settled in the valley of Tenanco, south of the lakes, while the Acxotecas took possession of the fertile valleys about Tollan. A war between Nauhyotl II. of Culhuacan and the king of Tollan is then vaguely recorded, in which Acxitl was victorious, but is supposed to have suffered from the constant hostility of Culhuacan from that time forward, although that kingdom soon had enough to do to defend her own possessions. The Eztlepictin introduced a new divinity, and a new worship, which Acxitl, as successor of Quetzalcoatl made a desperate effort to overthrow. He marched with all the forces he could command to Tenanco, but was defeated in every battle. What was worse yet, during his absence on this campaign, the Acxoteca branch of the invaders were admitted, under their leader Xalliteuctli, by the partisans of Tezcatlipoca into Tollan itself. Civil strife ensued in the streets of the capital between the three rival sects, until Tollan with all her noble structures was well-nigh in ruins. At the same time wars were waged between the three allied kingdoms, and pest and famine came once more upon the land. These events occurred between 1040 and 1047.[441 - Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 385-93. Veytia and Ixtlilxochitl are occasionally referred to on these events, but the chapters referred to contain absolutely nothing on the subject.]