Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Part 7

MEXICANS OR AZTECS.

Mexicans leave Aztlan 1064 1160 " arrive at Huelcolhuacan 1168 " " at Chicomotzoc 1168 " " at valley of Mexico 1141 1227 1216 " " at Chapultepec {1248 1245 {1276

Column Headings: A: _Mendoza's Collection._ B: _Codex Telluria.n.u.s._ C: _Acosta._ D: _Siguenza._ E: _D'Alva._ F: _Sahagun._ G: _Veytia._ H: _Clavigero._

MEXICANS OR AZTECS.

A B C D E F G H Foundation of Mexico or Tenocht.i.tlan 1324 1325 1220 1325 1325 Acamapichtli, elected King 1375 1399 1384 1361 1141 1384 1361 1352 Huitzilihuitl, accession 1396 1406 1424 1403 1353 1402 1389 Chimalpopoca 1417 1414 1427 1414 1357 1414 1409 Ytzcoatl 1427 1426 1437 1427 1427 1427 1423 Montezuma 1st 1440 1440 1449 1440 1440 1436 Acayacatl 1469 1469 1481 1468 1469 1464 Tizoc 1482 1483 1487 1481 1483 1477 Ahuitzol 1486 1486 1492 1486 1486 1482 Montezuma 2d 1502 1502 1503 1502 1503 1502

DURATION OF REIGNS OF MEXICAN KINGS.

Acamapichtli 21 7 40 42 150 21 41 37 Huitzilihuitl 21 8 3 11 50 21 12 20 Chimalpopoca 10 12 10 13 70 10 13 14 Ytzcoatl 13 14 12 13 13 14 13 Montezuma 1st 29 29 32 28 29 30 28 Acayacatl 13 14 6 13 14 14 13 Tizoc 4 3 5 5 3 4 5 Ahuitzol 16 16 11 16 17 8 16 Montezuma 2d 17 17 16 17 17 19 17

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

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

In addition to the tribes or States enumerated in the preceding tables as const.i.tuting the nucleus of the Mexican empire under Montezuma, at the period of the Spanish conquest, it must be recollected that there were numerous other Indian States,--such as the Tlascalans, Cholulans, &c., whose origin is more obscure even than that of the Aztecs. Besides these, there were, on the territories now comprehended within the Mexican republic, the Tarascos who inhabited Michoacan, an independent sovereignty;--the barbarous Ottomies; the Olmecs; the Xicalancas; the Miztecas, and Zapotecas. The last named are supposed by Baron Humboldt to have been superior, in civilization, to the Mexicans, and probably preceded the Toltecs in the date of their emigration. Their architectural remains are found in Oaxaca. If we consider the comparatively small s.p.a.ce in which the original tribes were gathered together in the valley of Mexico, which is not probably over two hundred and fifty miles in circ.u.mference, we cannot but be surprised that such remarkable results were achieved from such paltry beginnings and upon so narrow a theatre. The subjugation of so large a territory and such numerous tribes, by the Aztecs and Tezcocans is perhaps quite as wonderful an achievement, as the final subjugation of those victorious nations by the Spaniards.

But in all our estimates of Spanish valor and generalship, in the splendid campaigns of Cortez, we should never forget,--as we have remarked in the text,--the material a.s.sistance he received from his Indian allies--the Tlascalans.

[Footnote 12: 1 vol. Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., p. 145. Art. Mexican Hist. Chron., &c. &c., by Albert Gallatin.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AZTEC COSTUMES AND ARMS.]

CHAPTER XIV.

1521.

DIFFICULTY OF ESTIMATING THE CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS.--NATIONS IN YUCATAN.--VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.--THE AZTEC MONARCHY--ELECTIVE.--ROYAL STYLE IN TENOCHt.i.tLAN.--MONTEZUMA'S WAY OF LIFE.--DESPOTIC POWER OF THE EMPEROR OVER LIFE AND LAW.--THEFT--INTEMPERANCE--MARRIAGE--SLAVERY--WAR.--MILITARY SYSTEM AND HOSPITALS--COIN--REVENUES.--AZTEC MYTHOLOGY.--IMAGE OF TEOYAOMIQUI.--TEOCALLI--TWO KINDS OF SACRIFICE.--WHY THE AZTECS SACRIFICED THEIR PRISONERS.--COMMON SACRIFICE--GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICE--SACRIFICIAL STONE.--AZTEC CALENDAR--WEEK, MONTH, YEAR, CYCLE.--PROCESSION OF THE NEW FIRE--ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE.--AZTEC CALENDAR.--TABLES.

It is perhaps altogether impossible to judge, at this remote day, of the absolute degree of civilization, enjoyed at the period of the conquest, by the inhabitants not only of the valley of Mexico and Tezcoco, but also of Oaxaca, Tlascala, Michoacan, Yucatan, and their various dependencies. In studying this subject carefully, even in the cla.s.sical pages of Mr. Prescott, and in the laborious criticisms of Mr. 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 cla.s.s 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. There were strange inconsistences in the principles and conduct of the Mexicans, and strange blendings of softness and brutality, for the savage was as yet but rudely grafted on the citizen and the wandering or predatory habits of a tribe were scarcely tamed by the needful restraints of munic.i.p.al law.

It is probable that the Aztec refinement existed chiefly in the city of Tenocht.i.tlan or Mexico; or, that the capital of the empire, like the capital of France, absorbed the greater share of the genius and cultivation of the whole country. Our knowledge of Yucatan, and of the wonderful cities which have been revealed in its forests by the industry of Mr. Stephens, is altogether too limited to allow any conjectures, at this period, in regard to their inhabitants. It is likely that they were offshoots from the same race as the Aztecs, and that they all owed the first germs of their separate civilizations to the Toltecs, who, according to the legends, were the great traditionary ancestors of all the _progressive_ races that succeeded each other in emigrating from the north, and finally nestled in the lovely vale of Anahuac.

It is in the examination of such a period that we feel sensibly the want of careful contemporary history, and learn to value those narratives which present us the living picture of an age, even though they are sometimes tainted with the intolerance of religious sectarianism and bigotry, or by the merciless rancor of party malice.

They give us, at least, certain material facts, which are independent of the spirit or context of the story. Posterity, which is now eager for details, infinitely prefers a sketch like this, warm and breathing with the vitality of the beings in whose presence and from whose persons it is drawn, to the cold mosaics, made up by skilful artizans, from the disjointed chips which they are forced to discover, harmonize, and polish, amid the discordant materials left by a hundred writers. Such labors, when undertaken by patient men, may sometimes reanimate the past and bring back its scenes, systems and people, with wonderful freshness; yet, after all, they are but mere restorations, and often depend essentially on the vivid imagination which supplies the missing fragments and fills them, for a moment, with an electrical instead of a natural life.

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.

In our rapid sketch of the conquest, we have been compelled to present, occasionally, a few descriptive glimpses of the Aztec architecture, manners, customs and inst.i.tutions, which have already acquainted the reader with some of the leading features of national character. But it will not be improper, in a work like this, to combine in a separate chapter such views of the whole structure of Mexican society, under the original empire, as may not only afford an idea of the advancement of the nation which Cortez conquered, but, perhaps, will present the student with some national characteristics of a race that still inhabits Mexico jointly with the Spanish emigrants, and which is the lawful descendant of the wandering tribes who founded the city of Tenocht.i.tlan.

The Aztec government was a monarchy, but the right to the throne did not fall by the accident of descent upon a lineal relative of the last king, whose age would have ent.i.tled him, by European rule, to the royal succession. The brothers of the deceased prince, or his nephews, if he had no nearer kin, were the individuals from whom the new sovereign was chosen by four n.o.bles who had been selected as electors by their own aristocratic body during the preceding reign. These electors, together with the two royal allies of Tezcoco and Tlacopan, who were united in the college as merely honorary personages, decided the question as to the candidate, whose warlike and intellectual qualities were always closely scanned by these severe judges.

The elevation of the new monarch to the throne was pompous: yet, republican and just as was the rite of _selection_, the ceremony of _coronation_ was not performed until the new king had procured, by conquest in war, a crowd of victims to grace his a.s.sumption of the crown with their sacrifice at the altar. The palaces of these princes and their n.o.bles were of the most sumptuous character, according to the description that has been left us by the conquerors themselves.

The royal state and style of these people may be best described in the artless language of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier of the conquest, whose simple narrative, though sometimes colored with the superst.i.tions of his age, is one of the most valuable and veritable relics of that great event that has been handed down to posterity.

In describing the entrance of the Spaniards into the city--Diaz declares, with characteristic energy, that the whole of what he saw on that occasion appeared to him as if he had beheld it but yesterday;--and he fervently exclaims: "Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us courage to venture on such dangers and brought us safely through them!"

The Spaniards, as we have already said in a preceding chapter, were lodged and entertained at the expense of Montezuma, who welcomed them as his guests, and unwisely attempted to convince them of his power by exhibiting his wealth and state. Two hundred of his n.o.bility stood as guards in his ante-chamber.

"Of these," says Diaz, "only certain persons could speak to him, and when they entered, they took off their rich mantles and put on others of less ornament, but clean. They approached his apartment barefooted, their eyes fixed on the ground and making three inclinations of the body as they approached him. In addressing the king they said, "Lord--my lord--great lord!" When they had finished, he dismissed them with a few words, and they retired with their faces toward him and their eyes fixed on the ground. I also observed, that when great men came from a distance about business, they entered his palace barefooted, and in plain habit; and also, that they did not come in by the gate directly, but took a circuit in going toward it.

"His cooks had upward of thirty different ways of dressing meats, and they had earthen vessels so contrived as to keep them constantly hot.

For the table of Montezuma himself, above three hundred dishes were dressed, and for his guards above a thousand. Before dinner, Montezuma would sometimes go out and inspect the preparations, and his officers would point out to him which were the best, and explain of what birds and flesh they were composed; and of those he would eat. But this was more for amus.e.m.e.nt than anything else.

"It is said, that at times the flesh of young children was dressed for him; but the ordinary meats were domestic fowls, pheasants, geese, partridges, quails, venison, Indian hogs, pigeons, hares and rabbits, with many other animals and birds peculiar to the country. This is certain--that after Cortez had spoken to him relative to the dressing of human flesh, it was not practised in his palace. At his meals, in the cold weather, a number of torches of the bark of a wood which makes no smoke, and has an aromatic smell, were lighted; and, that they should not throw too much heat, screens, ornamented with gold and painted with figures of idols, were placed before them.

"Montezuma was seated on a low throne or chair, at a table proportioned to the height of his seat. The table was covered with white cloths and napkins, and four beautiful women presented him with water for his hands, in vessels which they call xicales, with other vessels under them, like plates, to catch the water. They also presented him with towels.

"Then two other women brought small cakes of bread, and, when the king began to eat, a large screen of gilded wood was placed before him, so that during that period people should not behold him. The women having retired to a little distance, four ancient lords stood by the throne, to whom Montezuma, from time to time, spoke or addressed questions, and as a mark of particular favor, gave to each of them a plate of that which he was eating. I was told that these old lords, who were his near relations, were also counsellors and judges. The plates which Montezuma presented to them they received with high respect, eating what was on them without taking their eyes off the ground. He was served in earthenware of Cholula, red and black. While the king was at the table, no one of his guards in the vicinity of his apartment dared, for their lives, make any noise. Fruit of all kinds produced in the country, was laid before him; he ate very little; but, from time to time, a liquor prepared from cocoa, and of a stimulative quality, as we were told, was presented to him in golden cups. We could not, at that time, see whether he drank it or not; but I observed a number of jars, above fifty, brought in, filled with foaming chocolate, of which he took some that the women presented him.

"At different intervals during the time of dinner, there entered certain Indians, humpbacked, very deformed, and ugly, who played tricks of buffoonery; and others who, they said, were jesters. There was also a company of singers and dancers, who afforded Montezuma much entertainment. To these he ordered the vases of chocolate to be distributed. The four female attendants then took away the cloths, and again, with much respect, presented him with water to wash his hands, during which time Montezuma conferred with the four old n.o.blemen formerly mentioned, after which they took their leave with many ceremonies.

"One thing I forgot (and no wonder,) to mention in its place, and that is, during the time that Montezuma was at dinner, two very beautiful women were busily employed making small cakes,[13] with eggs and other things mixed therein. These were delicately white, and, when made, they presented them to him on plates covered with napkins. Also another kind of bread was brought to him in long leaves, and plates of cakes resembling wafers.

"After he had dined, they presented to him three little canes, highly ornamented, containing liquid-amber, mixed with an herb they call tobacco; and when he had sufficiently viewed and heard the singers, dancers, and buffoons, he took a little of the smoke of one of these canes, and then laid himself down to sleep.

"The meal of the monarch ended, all his guards and domestics sat down to dinner; and, as near as I could judge, above a thousand plates of those eatables that I have mentioned, were laid before them, with vessels of foaming chocolate and fruit in immense quant.i.ty. For his women, and various inferior servants, his establishment was of a prodigious expense; and we were astonished, amid such a profusion, at the vast regularity that prevailed.

"His major domo kept the accounts of Montezuma's rents in books which occupied an entire house.

"Montezuma had two buildings filled with every kind of arms, richly ornamented with gold and jewels; such as shields, large and small clubs like two-handed swords, and lances much larger than ours, with blades six feet in length, so strong that if they fix in a shield they do not break; and sharp enough to use as razors.

"There was also an immense quant.i.ty of bows and arrows, and darts, together with slings, and shields which roll up into a small compa.s.s and in action are let fall, and thereby cover the whole body. He had also much defensive armor of quilted cotton, ornamented with feathers in different devices, and casques for the head, made of wood and bone, with plumes of feathers, and many other articles too tedious to mention."[14]

Besides this sumptuous residence in the city, the Emperor is supposed to have had others at Chapultepec, Tezcoco and elsewhere, which will be spoken of when we describe the ancient remains of Mexico in the valley of Mexico.

If the sovereign lived, thus, in state befitting the ruler of such an empire, it may be supposed that his courtiers were not less sumptuous in their style of domestic arrangements. The great body of the n.o.bles and caciques, possessed extensive estates, the tenures of which were chiefly of a military character;--and, upon these large possessions, surrounded by warlike natives and numerous slaves, they lived, doubtless, like many of the independent, powerful chieftains in Europe, who, in the middle ages, maintained their feudal splendor, both in private life and in active service whenever summoned by their sovereigns to give aid in war.

The power of the Emperor over the laws of the country as well as over the lives of the people, was perfectly despotic. There were supreme judges in the chief towns, appointed by the Emperor who possessed final jurisdiction in civil and criminal causes; and there were, besides, minor courts in each province, as well as subordinate officers, who performed the duty of police officers or spies over the families that were a.s.signed to their vigilance. Records were kept in these courts of the decisions of the judges; and the laws of the realm were likewise perpetuated and made certain, in the same hieroglyphic or picture writing. "The great crimes against society," says Prescott, "were all made capital;--even the murder of a slave was punished with death. Adulterers, as among the Jews, were stoned to death. Thieving, according to the degree of the offence, was punished with slavery or death. It was a capital offence to remove the boundaries of another's lands; to alter the established measures; and for a guardian not to be able to give a good account of his ward's property. Prodigals who squandered their patrimony were punished in like manner. Intemperance was visited with the severest penalties, as if they had foreseen in it the consuming canker of their own as well as of the other Indian races in later times. It was punished in the young with death, and in older persons with loss of rank and confiscation of property.

"The rites of marriage were celebrated with as much formality as in any Christian country; and the inst.i.tution was held in such reverence, that a tribunal was established for the sole purpose of determining questions in regard to it. Divorces could not be obtained, until authorized by a sentence of this court after a patient hearing of the parties."[15]

Slavery seems to have always prevailed in Mexico. The captives taken in war were devoted to the G.o.ds under the sacrificial knife; but criminals, public debtors, extreme paupers, persons who willingly resigned their freedom, and children who were sold by their parents,--were allowed to be held in bondage and to be transferred from hand to hand, but only in cases in which their masters were compelled by poverty to part with them.

A nation over which the G.o.d of war presided and whose king was selected, mainly, for his abilities as a chieftain, naturally guarded and surrounded itself with a well devised military system. Religion and war were blended in the imperial ritual. Montezuma, himself had been a priest before he ascended the throne. This dogma of the Aztec policy, originated, perhaps, in the necessity of keeping up a constant military spirit among a people whose instincts were probably civilized, but whose geographical position exposed them, in the beginning, to the attacks of unquiet and annoying tribes. The captives were sacrificed to the b.l.o.o.d.y deity in all likelihood, because it was necessary to free the country from dangerous Indians, who could neither be imprisoned, for they were too numerous, nor allowed to return to their tribes, because they would speedily renew the attack on their Aztec liberators.

Accordingly we find that the Mexican armies were properly officered, divided, supported and garrisoned, throughout the empire;--that there were military orders of merit;--that the dresses of the leaders, and even of some of the regiments, were gaudily picturesque;--that their arms were excellent;--and that the soldier who died in combat, was considered by his superst.i.tious countrymen, as pa.s.sing at once to "the region of ineffable bliss in the bright mansions of the sun." Nor were these military establishments left to the caprice of petty officers for their judicial system. They possessed a set of recorded laws which were as sure and severe as the civil or criminal code of the empire;--and, finally, when the Aztec soldier became too old to fight, or was disabled in the national wars, he was provided for in admirable hospitals which were established in all the princ.i.p.al cities of the realm.

But all this expensive machinery of state and royalty, was not supported without ample revenues from the people. There was a currency of different values regulated by trade, which consisted of quills filled with gold dust; of pieces of tin cut in the form of a T; of b.a.l.l.s of cotton, and bags of cacao containing a specified number of grains. The greater part of Aztec trade was, nevertheless, carried on by barter; and, thus, we find that the large taxes which were derived by Montezuma from the crown lands, agriculture, manufactures, and the labors or occupations of the people generally, were paid in "cotton dresses and mantles of feather-work; ornamented armor; vases of gold; gold dust, bands and bracelets; crystal, gilt and varnished jars and goblets; bells, arms and utensils of copper; reams of paper; grain; fruits, copal, amber, cochineal, cacao, wild animals, birds, timber, lime, mats," and a general medley in which the luxuries and necessaries of life were strangely mixed. It is not a little singular that silver, which since the conquest has become the leading staple export of Mexico, is not mentioned in the royal inventories which escaped destruction.[16]

The Mexican Mythology was a barbarous compound of spiritualism and idolatry. The Aztecs believed in and relied on a supreme G.o.d whom they called Teotl, "G.o.d," or Ipalnemoani--"he by whom we live," and Tloque Nahuaque,--"he who has all in himself;" while their counter-spirit or demon, who was ever the enemy and seducer of their race bore the inauspicious t.i.tle of Tlaleatecolototl, or the "Rational Owl." The dark, nocturnal deeds of this ominous bird, probably indicated its greater fitness for the typification of wickedness than of wisdom, of which the Greeks had flatteringly made it the symbol, as the pet of Minerva. These supreme spiritual essences were surrounded by a numerous court of satellites or lesser deities, who were perhaps the ministerial agents by which the behests of Teotl were performed. There was Huitzilopotchtli, the G.o.d of war, and Teoyaomiqui, his spouse, whose tender duties were confined to conducting the souls of warriors who perished in defence of their homes and shrines, into the "house of the sun," which was the Aztec heaven. The image in the plate, presented in front and in profile, is alleged to represent this graceful female, though it gives no idea of her holy offices.

Tetzcatlipoca was the shining mirror, the G.o.d of providence, the soul of the world, creator of heaven and earth, and master of all things.