Atzcapotzalco, who wrested the throne of the Chichimecs from
Ixtlilxochitl, and killed this brave but unfortunate prince. Maxtla,
the tyrant, was the son and heir of Tezozomoc, and as we have seen he
poured his wrath upon Nezahualcoyotl, the legitimate heir to the throne
of the Chichimecs, the monarchy of Texcuco or Aculhuacan.
X.
MEXICANS.
After the death in prison of their king Chimalpopoca, the Mexicans did
not hesitate to elect as his successor, Itzcoatl, the third son of their
first sovereign, brother to their last, and general-in-chief of their
armies, in which capacity he had shown himself of great force and valor.
When Maxtla heard of this he was full of wrath, having vainly imagined
that the murder of the late king's children would have put an end to
that line forever. He immediately began to make preparations to destroy
utterly the Mexicans, still nominally his vassals.
Itzcoatl at once sent messengers to Nezahualcoyotl, the rightful heir of
the Texcucans, proposing an alliance for the overthrow of the tyrant.
Nezahualcoyotl, as we have seen, had already recovered a part of his
inheritance, and feeling himself strong enough for the effort, he
accepted the proposals of the Mexican sovereign.
Maxtla, to anticipate this step, sent open commands to his vassals, the
Mexicans, that they should hold themselves in readiness to join his
whole army in an attack upon Texcuco, since, as he announced, he was
determined now to possess himself of the whole of the ancient kingdom of
the Chichimecs.
The chronicles say that the Mexicans were greatly terrified, so intense
was the terror inspired by Maxtla and his cruel warriors. The people
burst into tears and lamentations at being forced into so unwelcome a
war.
Itzcoatl, with the greatest skill, calmed their agitation, and summoned
them to another combat, which should decide the fate of the still
youthful monarchy of the Mexicans.
A great battle was fought against the Tepanecs with Maxtla at their
head. Opposite him were arranged the united forces of the Mexicans, the
Chichimecs, and their allies, of the neighboring little state of
Tlatelolco, as well as a great body of auxiliary troops, which ranged
themselves on the side of justice and against the terrible tyrant. The
allied army sallied forth to the encounter, but was driven back, and the
city of Tenochtitlan was about to fall into the hands of Maxtla, when
the three chiefs, Nezahualcoyotl, Itzcoatl and Motecuhzoma, followed by
their bravest warriors, plunged into the thickest of the fray, and by
the fury of their attack caused the Tepanecs to flee with all haste.
The battle was continued the next day, victory declaring itself for the
allies, who pursued the Tepanecs even into their own capital
Atzcapotzalco, where they set fire to the houses, sacking them first,
and killing the inhabitants. The king Maxtla himself fell under the
stroke of Nezahualcoyotl, who thus avenged the murder of his father.
The taking of the capital city was the end of the kingdom of the
Tepanecs. This took place in 1428.
By the downfall of this monarchy, Nezahualcoyotl was reinstated upon the
throne of his ancestors, at Texcuco, henceforth called the kingdom of
Acolhuacan; a small new kingdom arose, upon the ruins of the old, called
that of the Tepanecs of Tlacopan; these two formed with the Mexicans a
triple alliance which lasted for more than a century.
This alliance is called that of the "Valley Confederates," who by their
united strength could crush the surrounding isolated tribes with perfect
success.
Itzcoatl died in 1440, much lamented by his people. His obsequies were
performed with great solemnity. He was justly celebrated for his great
gifts, and the services he rendered his country. An old author says of
him that he was "a man so excellent that there is no language sufficient
for his praises."
On the death of this ruler, the Mexicans again came together to choose a
king, and unanimously selected Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina, brother of the
late king, and son of the first one. His election was received with
enthusiasm, because he was a great general, who had filled the minds of
the people with his brilliant deeds in emancipating them from the tyrant
control of the Tepanecs.
Under this king the fortunes of the Mexicans reached their height. He
was a great warrior, and by force of arms he subdued many surrounding
tribes, and extended the power of his kingdom. He was an intense fanatic
in religion, and a true despot, and carried his convictions to an
extreme which, while it extended his power, alienated the other peoples
of Anahuac, so that in the dark days of the future, they were ready
rather to be against the Mexicans than for them.
His first act, having resolved to erect a great temple to the god
Huitzilopochtli, in gratitude for the success of the recent conflicts,
was to send messages to all the country round about, summoning the
neighbors to come and lend their aid in bringing the great work to an
end. All obeyed with alacrity, except the Chalcas, a little tribe upon
the lake, who entirely refused to contribute aid. The king instantly
made war upon these people, and after bloody contests took possession of
Amecameca, their capital, an ancient town at the very base of the
volcanoes. Other towns fell into the hands of the Mexicans. Meanwhile,
the influence of the Texcucan court, aided by the natural development
that comes with success, had much advanced the Aztec from the pitiful
state of squalor in which his race made their entrance into the Valley
of Anahuac only a century before. Without believing the exaggerated
accounts of the Spaniards describing the splendors they found in Mexico,
we may at least allow the Aztecs a degree of intelligence and
cultivation on a level with the civilization of their time.
In the middle of the fifteenth century, the Mexicans suffered from an
infliction which has since many a time caused trouble to their capital.
Abundant rains so swelled the lake that the city was inundated, many
buildings destroyed, and inhabitants drowned. The king of Texcuco
advised the building of a great dike, so thick and strong as to keep out
the water. The next year the chronicles relate that a heavy snow fell
for six days and nights, destroying all vegetation, and a great number
of human beings and animals. The loss of crops for these years caused
such a famine, that in spite of the great liberality of the king and his
grandees, many people emigrated to the south.
These disasters furnish but a poor excuse for the human sacrifice with
which the Aztecs sought to appease the wrath of their god. The Mexican
king used to sally forth at fixed intervals to battle with the sole
object of seizing prisoners for sacrifice, without laying any claim to
lands or kingdoms. He extended these raids as far as the valley of
Tlaxcalla, and the neighboring city of Cholula, carrying off victims,
but leaving the government of these provinces as he found them. This
explains the cause of the continued independence of these provinces, in
spite of their constant warfare with Mexico, and also shows what reason
these people had for hating a neighbor who made himself so disagreeable.
Motecuhzoma made the power of his arm felt even to the shores of the
Gulf, and enlarged his territory in all directions. He framed a code for
repressing crime, made laws regulating the dress and ornaments of his
subjects, invented any number of new religious rites and sacrifices
hitherto unheard of, built many temples, and strove to establish the
principles of his religion throughout Anahuac. Thus the poor and
miserable little tribe of a century before, at the death of Motecuhzoma
Ilhuicamina had greatly gained in strength and extent.
Three sovereigns followed Motecuhzoma, in due course, and in practice of
the same methods of government. They extended their depredations all
over the country, sometimes meeting with resistance, as in the case of
Michoacan, in 1479, when the Mexicans were utterly routed by the
Tarascos in a bloody battle which lasted two days. The king at that time
was Axayacatl, who died soon after his disastrous defeat. He left two
sons destined to play a part in the last scene of the history of Mexican
monarchy--Motecuhzoma the Second and Cuitlahuac.
The immediate successor of Axayacatl was his brother, Tizoc, who, as was
the custom, left the position of general-in-chief to become king. He was
a brave warrior, stern and uncompromising in character, zealous in
gathering victims to sacrifice to his gods.
In the museum of Mexico is a monument which preserves the name and deeds
of this great warrior king. It is a large carved stone, which was found
in the course of excavation for a sewer, almost a hundred years ago in
the principal plaza of the city of Mexico. It is called the Cuauhxicalli
of Tizoc, which means the Drinking cup of the Eagle. On its upper face
is carved an image of the sun. On the carved sides are fifteen groups,
each group of two persons, the conquering warrior grasping by the hair a
prisoner. The warrior is in each the same figure repeated. The fifteen
prisoners represent fifteen conquered tribes. The conqueror is Tizoc,
seventh king of Mexico, who occupied the throne from 1481 to 1486.
There is a theory that these carvings have a further allegorical
meaning. The evening star and the moon are represented as two warriors
engaged in a struggle, in which the former makes the attack, and the
latter defends himself. Tizoc is intended by the morning star, and the
moon represents the conquered nations. The evening star wears the sacred
mask; the part of his face left uncovered, as well as his hands and
feet, are smeared with a black ointment peculiar to priests and gods.
His body is covered with a tiger skin, which is always an attribute with
the natives of the morning star, which draws captive after it all the
other stars, so that the sky spotted with light seemed to them typified
by the spotted skin of the tiger. The warrior has in one hand a sword of
obsidian, and in the other a shield bearing the symbols of the planet.
The face and garments of the vanquished warrior are white like the rays
of the moon. His feet are bound, but in one hand he holds high his sword
of obsidian, while the other grasps the standard and mirror of the moon.
The use to which the stone was applied by Tizoc was less purely
fanciful. In his time, among the Aztecs, there existed an order of
nobles whose title was the eagles. The sun was their patron saint.
During certain ceremonies they sacrificed to the sun a human victim,
upon this stone, the drinking-cup of the Eagles. This victim was chosen
from the prisoners taken in war. He was brought forward, at the sound of
music, surrounded by illustrious noblemen. His legs were painted with
red and white stripes, and half his face was painted red; a white plume
was stuck in his hair. In one hand he carried a walking-stick, gay with
ribbons and plumes; in the other, a shield covered with cotton. His
thighs were bound round with little bundles containing gifts. He was led
to the bottom of the grand staircase of the temple and thus addressed:
[Illustration: STONE OF TIZOC.]
"Sir, what we desire is that thou goest before our god, the sun, to
salute him for us. Tell him that his sons and chief gentlemen here
supplicate him to remember them, hoping he will accept the small
_recuerdo_ we send him. Give him the walking-stick, the shield, and the
other things in the little bundle."
The victim then went slowly up the steps, receiving fresh instructions
as to what he should say to the sun. At the top was the drinking-cup,
and towards this he advanced. In a loud voice, addressing at once the
real sun and its image carved upon the stone, he delivered the message
just given him. Then came four attendants, who seized him by hands and
feet, and having taken away the cane, the shield, and little bundles,
they ascended with him the four steps of the stone, where the
high-priest cut his throat, commanding him thus to go with his message
to the real sun in the other life. The blood flowed down the basin in
the stone through a canal to the side where the image of the sun was
carved, so that this was quenched with blood. Meantime, the
_sacrificador_ opened the breast of the victim and plucked out the
heart, holding it aloft until it became cold, thereby offering it to the
sun. Thus went on his way the luckless messenger.
Tizoc began the construction of a great temple in honor of
Huitzilopochtli, a superb edifice, according to the chronicles, the most
lofty in the city, covering all the site of the present cathedral, and
moreover extending over much of the ground now occupied by the Plaza
Mayor. Tizoc was poisoned, at the instigation of some neighboring kings,
by women who brought him a fatal drink. He died suddenly, after a brief
reign of four years.
Ahuitzotl, his brother and successor, hastened to bring the great
teocalli to completion, and its dedication was the occasion of a great
feast and celebration. Kings and caciques of the allied people came,
bringing rich offerings to the Mexican monarch, who displayed the
greatest magnificence in receiving his guests. The chief feature of the
occasion was the great slaughter of four days of victims made prisoners
of war on purpose for the sacrifice to the god to whom the temple was
reared.
Ahuitzotl was troubled with inundations of the lake, and by the advice
of Nezahualpilli the Wise, he caused huge dikes to be constructed, which
averted the danger. The monarch himself was overtaken by water bursting
into one of the lower chambers of his palace. As he rushed suddenly out
of the room to avoid the flood, he received a blow on the head by
striking a beam, which caused his death a few years after.
This monarch was passionately devoted to war, and by his conquests he
extended widely the dominions of the crown. He was violent, vengeful,
and cruel, the terror of the people he conquered, jealous to preserve
untouched his authority, pitiless in exacting tribute and collecting
taxes; in a word, a despot, holding absolute control over the lives and
actions of his subjects. In compensation for these unattractive
characteristics his historians give him credit for greatly embellishing
his capital city. He was fond of music, liberal to the needy, and
generous to such soldiers as distinguished themselves in his wars.
At the death of Ahuitzotl the kingdom ruled of his ancestors had reached
the height of its extent, splendor, and power. On the north, its
frontier extended to the 21st degree of latitude. On the east, with the
exception of the kingdom of Texcuco, and the independent tribes of
Cholula, Tlaxcalla, and Huexotzinco, it reached the Gulf of Mexico,
including all the shore, from the semi-independent Cuextecas to the
border of the Coatzacoalco River. On the southeast the kingdom extended
to Xoconochco, towards the south its boundary touched Mexcalla, and on
the west its barrier was the haughty kingdom of Michoacan, against which
the armies of the Mexicans fought always in vain.
Such a point of power had reached the Aztec tribe in the course of one
hundred years. From their small beginning as a handful of hunted
creatures, hiding in the rushes of a swamp, they had grown to be an
all-powerful nation, carrying a triumphant warfare throughout the land,
and enlarging their boundaries with every triumph. The shocking features
of their sanguinary religion make them odious to our minds. It is
difficult to accommodate it to the gentle traits of the Aztec character,
which shows them to be of domestic tastes, affectionate and mild in
temper. Such a stain upon the nation is only to be explained, not
excused, by the power of religious fanaticism. Other religions in other
parts of the world, were exercising a control as arbitrary, with results
the same in quality though not in degree. In 1480, in Spain, the Holy
Inquisition was established against apostates, that is, persons
converted from any other religion to that of the Roman Catholic Church,
who, after baptism, reverted to Judaism or the faith of Islam. The
tribunal of Seville, alone, between 1480 and 1520, consigned four
thousand victims to the flames.
[Illustration: SCULPTURE REPRESENTING HUMAN SACRIFICE.]
Louis XI. of France wore little images of saints and angels in his cap,
while he did not hesitate to shut up his enemies for life in a wooden
cage. As his death drew near in 1483, he shuddered at the thought of the
victims, more than five thousand, whom he had caused to be put to death,
for his own ends, without the plea of religious ardor.
Richard III., in England, during a short reign of two years from 1483 to
1485, not only murdered his young nephews, but put to death his brother,
the Duke of Clarence, Lord Hastings, Jane Shore, and his own friend and
ally the Duke of Buckingham.
It is of course idle to compare the civilization of the two continents
at that period; widely separated as they were, and each ignorant of the
very existence of the other. European society emerged from the barbarism
of the dark ages was, according to its interpretation of them, based
upon the teachings of the faith of Christ. No such advantages, as yet,
had reached the plateau of Anahuac. The most elevating influence shed
over its people was from the traditional Quetzalcoatl, whose teachings
of mild and gentle manners left a deep and pervading impression.
Otherwise, the struggle for life, rude contact with the lower instincts
of the less developed with the better informed, gave an always downward
tendency to the institutions of their society.
It is all very obscure, now more than ever, because new information is
disturbing the accepted theory of Aztec culture given by writers of
Mexican history up to nearly the present time. For a true knowledge of
early life in Mexico, we must wait till explorers and archæologists have
fully established their discoveries by facts. Such an exposition, which
is pretty sure to come, will be of great importance to those interested
in the future, as well as the past, of the native races of Mexico.
Meanwhile, in a book like this, which is permitted to gather up legend
as well as fact, in order to present the attractive, even romantic, side
of its subject, it would be a pity to wholly set aside the accounts of
the Aztecs, as they have hitherto been given in current history, as
worthless and superseded. This would be to leave a gap at the very
beginning of authentic story, to take away the lowest step of the ladder
we wish to climb. If the "Last of the Montezumas" is to be reduced to a
chieftain of a sedentary tribe, we, in this story of Mexico, may regard
him as one once invested with the glories of an empire. Our chief object
in examining the early periods written of in the preceding chapters, is
to gather clear impressions of the character of the people we are
reading about. For this end it is of vast importance to know whether the
native races now forming a large part of the population of Mexico, are
descended from a cultivated line of kings, or whether they merely
inherit the manners and customs of illiterate tribes. The reader must
for himself create from the stories drawn from Spanish accounts, and
evidences given by picture-writings, and the description of monuments
and ruins, his own idea of the Aztec character, giving due weight to the
substance of the legends about Mexican greatness, while he brushes off
with modern ruthlessness the cobwebs which obscure the truth of the
story, however brightly they may sparkle, and adorn the tale.
XI.
AZTEC CHARACTER.
It is impossible with our present knowledge to form an estimate of the
civilization of the Aztecs at their highest point. The reports given by
the Spaniards at the time of the conquests are not to be relied upon, as
they paint in the exaggerated colors they thought most likely to give
glory to their own achievements. Unfortunately they felt called upon to
destroy most of the picture-writings they found, which would have been
as valuable in forming an opinion of the manners and customs of the race
they depicted, as the volumes we find in European libraries are to
enlighten us upon the manners and customs of contemporary races in
Europe.
The Aztecs knew no alphabet, but instead of letters they used certain
signs or hieroglyphics by which they wrote on every subject--religion,
history, geography, poetry, feasts, famines, wars, and the arts of
peace. This fashion of writing was handed down from father to son, and
taught in colleges or by the priests. The artists who executed the
manuscripts were treated with general consideration, and the sovereign
even paid them honor. They worked on paper made of the fibre of the
maguey, or on linen cloth, with a sort of pen like the stylus of the
Romans. The colors were procured from vegetable dyes, in general. They
had little variety of tint, but were vivid and permanent.
These paintings, of which several of the small remnant in existence of
the great quantity destroyed by the Conquistadores are in the museum at
Mexico, are extremely interesting, both as works of art from a point of
view entirely different from our European prejudices, and also as
recording events with wonderful simplicity and directness.
The one called the Wanderings of the Aztecs, is absolutely authentic,
and is wholly interpreted. It is forty-eight feet long and nine inches
wide done on maguey paper, all in black, with no other colors, except
that the line of travel is marked in red. This painting gives the route
of the Aztecs, from their departure from Aztlan until their arrival in
the valley of Mexico. On an island, in the land of Aztlan, stands a
teocalli, like the temples of worship in Mexico. The chronology year by
year is given, and the various halts made by the wanderers, with the
principal events that befell them. A short piece at the end is torn off
and missing, which probably depicted the founding of Tenochtitlan.
Another painting depicts a range of mountains among which is one pouring
forth smoke from its summit. On the left is a city entirely surrounded
by water, with the cactus growing on the rock, which always signifies
Tenochtitlan. The mountain doubtless in Popocatepetl, which by its name
signifies Hill that gives Smoke. Another painting gives the chronology
of the kings of Mexico and Texcuco; it is long, stretching half across
the large room of the museum in which it is exhibited.
[Illustration: COURT OF THE MUSEUM AT MEXICO.]
If we only had more of these paintings, the daily life of the Aztecs
would be before us, just as we can read on the Egyptian monuments every
detail of such remote living.
In the usual accounts of the religion of the Aztecs, more stress is laid
upon the horror of their human sacrifice than upon its other features,
which, however, deserve notice. They firmly believed in a future life.
While some of the Nahuatl races imagined that after death the common
people would be transformed into insects, the chiefs into birds, the
Aztecs conceived of graduated stages of happiness for mankind. Warriors
slain in battle were immediately to dwell in the house of the sun; less
distinguished souls went to live in the various planets. But these
starry houses were only temporary. For four years after the death of a
relative the friends offered meat, wines, flowers, and perfumes to the
dead in certain months of the year, one of which was dedicated to dead
children, and the other to warriors killed in battle.
When a chief died among the Aztecs great care was taken in ornamenting
the body, as if preparing it for a long journey. Several papers are
presented to the corpse: one as a passport across the defile between the
two mountains; one with which to avoid the great serpent; the third was
to put to flight the alligator; the fourth would give a safe crossing
over the eight great deserts and the eight hills. A little red-haired
dog was killed, a leash put about his neck, and he was buried near the
corpse. Always the little dog, for rich or poor, warrior or slave, to
guide his master across the nine great torrents which every departed
soul must encounter.