Aztec

“ Suddenly and without warning amidst all of this tender beauty of flowers and murmurous water and birds and perfumes Kendric came upon that which lasted on as a true sign to recall the strange nature of the ancient Aztec, a nation of refinement and culture and hideous barbarism and cruelty; a nation of epicures who upon great feast days ate of elaborately-served dishes of human flesh ”

“ The contrast between the steel-clad cavaliers of Castile, whose burnished armor blazed and glittered in the brilliant torch-light, and rung under their heavy martial tramp upon the marble floor, and the comparatively fairy figures of the gaudily apparelled Aztecs, was as strong as could possibly be presented in a scene like this. The costumes and customs of each were matter of wonder and admiration to the other. The Aztec trembled at the mysterious power, the incomprehensible weapons, of the white man. ”

“ Their dark countenances and long hair, their vestments and arms, were all of an Aztec character; yet a second and more scrutinizing glance made it apparent, that one, at least, if not two of them, was of another and nobler race. ”

“ Gone are the sheltering forests, and much of the land scorched by the merciless sun lies barren and deserted. Gone too are the many white-towered cities, and dead is the blossom of Aztec civilisation. ”

“ I close the chapter and the annals of the Aztec period, with a brief glance at the general condition of affairs in and about Anáhuac in 1519, and the most extraordinary combination of circumstances that made [481] it possible for Hernan Cortés to overthrow with a handful of Spanish soldiers a mighty aboriginal empire. The power known as Aztec, since the formation of the tri-partite alliance not quite a century before under the Acolhua, Mexican, and Tepanec kings, had gradually extended its iron grasp from its centre about the lakes to the shores of either ocean ”

“ The outer wall of the Great Temple, itself, was soon passed by the hot-blooded cavaliers, some of whom rushed up the stairs and circling corridors of the Teocalli, whence they pushed the priests over the sides of the pyramid and tore off the golden mask and jewels of the Aztec war-god. ”

“ The story of the fall of Aztec civilization before the Spanish invaders has deservedly won a great hold upon popular imagination, for every page is redolent of romance, and indeed few, if any, writers of fiction have conceived a tale so full of incident, or have brought their heroes to victory in the face of greater odds. Moreover, the existence of Aztec civilization, an organized empire with cities built of stone and rich in gold and gems, burst upon the Old World as a thing almost beyond belief. ”

“ Myriads of upturned faces greeted it from hills, mountains, temples, terraces, teocallis, house tops and city walls; and the prostrate multitudes hailed the emblem of light, life and fruition as a blessed omen of the restored favor of their gods and the preservation of the race for another cycle. At regular intervals, Indian couriers held aloft brands of resinous wood, by which they transmitted the "New Fire" from hand to hand, from village to village, and town to town, throughout the Aztec empire. ”

“ The Aztec migration is a conspicuous feature of native tradition, and is, therefore, prominent in the histories, being figured by several of the codices, as well as in Durán's Album. An early narration of the Aztec myth forms chh. ix ff. of the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, while the Historia de los Reynos de Colhuacan y de México, the narrative of the "Anónimo Mexicano," and Tezozomoc, i-iii, give other native versions. Mendieta, Sahagun, and Durán, are other sources for the myth. Seler [a] , ii, "Wo lag Aztlan, die Heimat der Azteken?" ”

“ The Aztec were confessedly immigrants, who had wandered south less than five hundred years before the conquest; by their superiority as fighting-men they had won the hegemony over the kindred tribes which they found settled in the valley of Mexico, and had extended their power to both oceans and as far at least as the isthmus of Tehuantepec. ”

“ To one who has read the history of the Aztec irruption into the Mexican valley, of their wanderings on the lake borders for years, the shifts they were put to to obtain even the vilest food, as they were driven away from solid and fertile soil by other tribes, it does not seem improbable that their necessities should have driven them to avail themselves of the floating islands of bulrush and reeds set adrift by the storms of the rainy season. ”

“ The story of those strange old cultures of Mexico and Peru has always fascinated us: the Aztec and the Inca stand forth from the dry lore of archæology with a peculiar charm, which we may [58] not have felt even in contemplating the more wonderful and ancient cultures of the Old World. For here we feel that the intellect and art of man sprang unaided from the dust, to write his pathetic story in the stones of a continent unvisited by the Jehovah of the Israelites, unknown to history, unblessed of Christianity, unrecorded and obscure. ”

“ AZTEC CULTURE The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art, science, and knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made most beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They worshiped many gods, to which the priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. ”

“ Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contributed to the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, not only in the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the territory now within the limits of the republic, we find that the indigenous descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have degenerated to such a degree that they are at present in general, fitted only for the servile toils to which they are commonly and habitually devoted. ”

“ After a careful review of nearly all the historians and writers upon the ancient history of Mexico, we have never encountered a satisfactory view of the Aztec empire, except in the history of the conquest, by our countryman Prescott. His chapters upon the Mexican civilization, are the best specimens in our literature, since the days of Gibbon, of that laborious, truthful, antiquarian temper, which should always characterize a historian who ventures upon the difficult task of portraying the distant past. ”

“ The timid dove of Chapoltepec shall be transformed to the royal eagle of Tenochtitlan.”
“That cannot be. I rather fear that the deep cloud of my doom will overshadow and darken your life. Better far that I should suffer and perish alone.”
“It must be, Tecuichpo, it shall be. Have not the gods given you to me? Have they not made me the defender of the Aztec throne? How then can you doubt that they call you to share and adorn it?”
“Oh! my lord! those terrible omens—they are but half fulfilled, and the promised light is yet far in the distance. ”

“ The Aztecs were a very powerful people, and all the nations around them were afraid of them and acknowledged the Aztec king as theirs; and everywhere from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico were great roads leading from the city down to the coasts, so that the king could send messages at any time from one part of his kingdom to another; all over the country outside the city were great fields, where cotton, corn, wheat, sugar, coffee, and other things were raised. The Aztecs did not dress in skins, as did the Indians farther north, but they wove cotton into cloth and made garments of that. ”

“ Anderson, a companion of Captain Cook in 1778, discovered the Aztec terminal l tl or z of frequent occurrence among the Nootkas of the North-west coast. With this data and the traditions of the Aztecs, which all point to the north as their ancient home, sufficient basis was found for a general belief that the Mexican peoples had migrated down the coast of California and left an unbroken linguistic line along the entire route of their wanderings. ”

“ Gallatin, we find ourselves frequently bewildered in the labyrinth of historical details and picturesque legends, which have been carefully gathered and grouped to form a romantic picture of the Aztec nation. Yet facts enough have survived, not only the wreck of the conquest, but also the comparative stagnation of the viceroyalty, to satisfy us that there was a large class of people, at least in the capitals and their vicinity, whose tastes, habits, and social principles, were nearly equal to the civilization of the Old World at that time. ”

“ The extent of the Aztec empire is to be gathered from the writings of historians since the arrival of the Spaniards, and from the picture-rolls of tribute paid by the conquered cities; both sources extremely vague and defective. See the MSS. of the Mendoza collection, in Lord Kingsborough's magnificent publication (Antiquities of Mexico, comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Paintings and Hieroglyphics, together with the Monuments of New Spain, London, 1830) . ”

“ The Aztecs, one of these tribes, in the course of events gaining the ascendency, gave their name to the language which their conquests speedily extended over a territory four hundred leagues in length, and in width from the Gulf to the Pacific, in the latitude of the capital. The Aztec tongue prevailed continuously from a point on the Gulf of California, under the twenty-sixth parallel of latitude south-easterly to Rios Goatzacoalco and Tobasco; and southward to the fifteenth parallel, extending along the coast of San Salvador and appearing in the interior of Nicaragua. ”

“ How would they cling to this rude mountain clime,
And bar the door of their futurity!
The Aztecs were a proud and prowent race;
In the dispersal at the far Northeast,
Now many years, they held the leading place;
Yet, in their husbandry, they were the least.
Their hands were skilled to turbulence and strife;
The bow, the lance, and the rude hunter's knife—
Such were their ready implements; but peace
Found them all unacquainted; her surcease
[94] Requires a range of weaponry diverse.
The hands that hew down others, lips that curse,
Both must be newly christened ”

“ For the sedentary tribes of the valleys, dependent chiefly upon agriculture and fishing for a livelihood, the deities presiding over vegetation, rain and earth were the most important; and after the Aztec had become settled and devoted themselves to intensive cultivation, they readily adopted these gods and gave them a high place in their pantheon. ”

“ The ancient Aztec cities, on the vast and beautiful plains, and upon the southern banks of the Rio Gila, in New California, with numerous other remains of arts, and evidences of former civilization, now to be seen among what have been denominated the 'Independent Indians,' on the north-west coast of America, from the thirty-third to the fifty-fourth parallels of latitude, will be seen to throw much light on the original people, both of Mexico and of our own country. ”

“ This sketch of Aztec history, brief as it is, would not be complete without some reference to the interesting Aztec Civilisation.indigenous civilisation of the peoples of Anahuac. Dwelling, as we have seen, in stone houses usually of one story in height, they were slowly evolving an architectural type of their own. These houses, which were built of red stone found in the vicinity of Mexico city, were flat-roofed, the roofs or azoteas being laid out with parterres of flowers, which gave the city, when viewed from the summit of a temple, the appearance of an immense garden. ”

“ Anxious to make sure that we have really got into the land of Aztec civilization, Mr. Christy gets down from the diligence, and hunting about for a few minutes by the road-side, returns in triumph with a broken arrowhead of obsidian. A deep channel cut by a water-course gives us our first idea of the depth of the soil; for these plateaus were once nothing but deep hollows among the mountains, which rain and melted snow, bringing down fragments of porphyry and basalt—partly in their original state and partly decomposed—have filled up and formed into plains. ”

“ Aztec religious art seems, in fact, to move in a more primitively realistic atmosphere than that in which the religious art of other peoples has come to similarly adept expression; it shows little of that tendency—which Yucatan and Peru in America, as well as the ancient and Oriental nations, had all attained—to subordinate the idea to the expressional form, and to soften even the horrible with the suavity of aesthetic charm. The Aztec gods were as grimly business-like in form as the realities of their service were fearful. ”

“ Even from the summary and incomplete indications here given, it is seen that the Aztec state possessed many excellent institutions and elements of an advanced civilisation, and, despite the co-existence of certain limitations which have led some to doubt the development claimed for them, our interest in the origin and history of the mysterious races of Andhuac is stimulated to wonder and admiration for what we do know of their empire, and to boundless regret for the disappearance of all, save the few vestiges which remain to excite a curiosity they are inadequate to appease. ”

“ From the quantity of Indian remains found on this elevation and in its vicinity, there is no doubt that it was the site of an Aztec palace, or was connected with the adjacent plain by some architectural works that have been destroyed in the centuries that have elapsed since the conquest. The traveller climbs this steep mountain with great labor, and finds nearly every part of it covered with the débris of ancient pottery and obsidian; and, in many parts of his ascent, he is aided by the remains of the spiral road, cut in the solid rock, which evidently once wound from its base to its top. ”