It has sometimes been assumed that the Aztecs came to Mexico from the
north, but there is nothing to warrant this assumption, nothing to make
it probable, nothing even to explain the fact that some persons have
entertained it. People of the ancient Mexican and Central American race
are not found farther north than New Mexico and Arizona, where they are
known as Pueblos, or Village Indians. In the old times that was a
frontier region, and the Pueblos seem to represent ancient settlers who
went there from the south. There was the border line between the Mexican
race and the wild Indians, and the distinction between the Pueblos and
the savage tribes is every way so uniform and so great that it is
well-nigh impossible to believe they all belong to the same race. In
fact, no people really like our wild Indians of North America have ever
been found in Mexico, Central America, or South America.
Investigation has made it probable that the Mexicans or Aztecs went to
the Valley of Mexico from the south. Mr. Squier says: "The hypothesis of
a migration from Nicaragua and Cuscutlan to Anahuac is altogether more
consonant with probabilities and with tradition than that which derives
the Mexicans from the north; and it is a significant fact, that in the
map of their migrations presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of
the Aztecs is designated by the sign of water (_atl_ standing for
Aztlan), a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree."
Humboldt thought this indicated a southern origin.
Communities of Aztecs still exist as far south as Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, with some variations in their speech, but not so great, probably,
as to make them unintelligible to each other. The Spanish historian,
Oviedo, called attention to the fact that an isolated community of
Aztecs was found occupying the territory between Lake Nicaragua and the
Pacific. They were called Niquirans, and Mr. Squier seems to have
verified this fact. The result of his investigation is that the people
of the district specified are Aztecs, and that, "from the comparative
lateness of the separation or some other cause," their distinguishing
features were easily recognized, their speech being nearly identical
with the native speech heard in the Valley of Mexico. Oviedo said of
them: "The Niquirans who speak the Mexican language have the same
manners and appearance as the people of New Spain (Mexico)." In the
neighboring districts, communities closely related to the Mayas are
found, and others that appear to belong to the Toltec family. Aztecs are
found still farther south, and there appear to be conclusive reasons for
believing that Montezuma's people went from the south to Anahuac or
Mexico.
According to the native histories as reported by Clavigero, the Aztecs
began their migration northward from Aztlan about the year 1160 A.D.,
and founded the more important of their first settlements in the Valley
of Mexico about the year 1216 A.D., a little over three hundred years
previous to the Spanish invasion. Another result of investigation adds a
century to this estimate. This result is reached as follows: the
Mexicans stated constantly that their calendar was reformed some time
after they left Aztlan, and that in the year 1519 eight cycles of
fifty-two years each and thirteen years of a ninth cycle had passed
since that reform was made. This carries back the beginning of their
migration considerably beyond the year 1090 A.D.
Their sway seems to have been confined for a long time to Anahuac. They
grew to supremacy in part probably by the arrival of new immigrants,
but chiefly by conquest of the small states into which the country was
divided. They could learn from their more cultivated neighbors to reform
their calendar, compute time with greater accuracy, and make important
improvements in other respects. They must also have modified their
religious system to some extent, for it does not appear that they had
adopted the worship of Kukulcan (whose name they transformed into
Quetzalcohuatl) before they came to Mexico. But they brought with them
an effective political organization, and very likely they were better
fitted than most of their new neighbors for the rude work of war.
Before the city of Mexico was built, the seat of their government was at
Tezcuco. The character of their civilization after they rose to
pre-eminence was shown in their organization, in their skill as
builders, in the varied forms of their industry, and in the development
of their religious ceremonies. It is manifest that they adopted all the
astronomical knowledge and appliances found in the neighboring states
which they subjugated. Their measure of the solar year and their
numbering of the months were precisely like what had long existed in
this part of the country; and they had the same astronomical implements
or contrivances. One of these contrivances, found at Chapultepec, is
described as follows:
"On the horizontal plane of a large, carefully-worked stone, three
arrows were cut in relief, so that the shaft ends came together and made
equal angles in the centre. The points were directed eastward, the two
outside showing the two solstitial points, and that in the centre the
equinoctial. A line on the carved band holding them together was in
range with holes in two stones which stood exactly north and south. A
cord drawn tightly through the holes in these two stones would, at the
moment of noon, cast its shadow on the line drawn across the band. It
was a perfect instrument for ascertaining east and west with precision,
and for determining the exact time by the rising and setting of the sun
at the equinoxes and solstices. This stone has now been broken up and
used to construct a furnace."
These Aztecs were manifestly something very different from "Mexican
savages." At the same time, they were less advanced in many things than
their predecessors. Their skill in architecture and architectural
ornamentation did not enable them to build such cities as Mitla and
Palenque, and their "picture writing" was a much ruder form of the
graphic art than the phonetic system of the Mayas and Quiches. It does
not appear that they ever went so far in literary improvement as to
adopt this simpler and more complete system for any purpose whatever. If
the country had never, in the previous ages, felt the influence of a
higher culture than that of the Aztecs, it would not have now, and never
could have had, ruined cities like Mitla, Copan, and Palenque. Not only
was the system of writing shown by the countless inscriptions quite
beyond the attainments of Aztec art, but also the abundant sculptures
and the whole system of decoration found in the old ruins.