Maryland free press., 1866-11-15
From the Land zoe LoUe.
A Fragment from Mexican History.

Prescott's charming book, the Conquest
of Mexico" in the country which he has
described with all the living truth of the
landscape painter. Day by day, we were
more aud more impressed with the accura-
ey and lifc-likenesses of his picturcs;-
whether we are wading through the deep
sands. among the tangled chapparel of the
ttcrrr rulieate, marching through the gor-
geous forests and enchanted scenery of the
elevated plateaus, Or gazing from the table
lands upon the snow-capped SUBMITS of
Orizaba, the Caffre, Popocatepetl and IL
taccihuatl. The glowing imagination of
the great word painter enabled him to por-
tray with amazing fidelity, the luxuriant
vegetation, the green valleys, sparkling
streams, barren -salt-plains, olive crowned
hills and sierras of this region of story and
romance. We were fortunate too, in be-
ing able to read in the very places made
historic by the heroic deeds of Cortez and
his followers, the military sketches of the
stout soldier, Bernal Diaz, the fascinating
volumes of Don Antonio De Soils and the
more philosophical work of Don francesca
J. Clavigero. These are the authorities
upon which Mr. Prescott chiefly relied in
writing his celebrated history. We have
not read his book since 1917, but our i'm
preston is, that he derives his accounts Of
battles mainly from Bernal Diaz; the pol
icy Of the Spanish campaigns, and the re-
lations Of the aztecs to the noighboring ma
tions are furnished by Dc Soils while he
looks to Clavigcro for information in re-
gard to the antiquities, origin, religion,
mode of worship, manners, customs and So
cial characteristics of the Aztecs, Tlasca-
lans, and other numerous nations in that
once populous rrgon. Clavigero is espe-
cially satisfactory in regard to the religion
of the Aztecs, Toltecs, and other tribes of
aboriginees; aud in that subject we were
particularly interested. We were struck
with two facts, to one of which we do not
remember that attention has ever been
called. 2st. That the Indians, like the
idolitrous Jews, loved to worship upon
high places" Their sacrifcial rites were
all performed, upon the fiat tops of tenn
pies Of cal y picdra, which thickly dotted
the surface of the country. Cortcz, in a
letter to the Emperor, Charles V. told him
that from the altar, crownipg the height
of the pyramid of Chohula, he could count
four hundred turrets, where heathan wor-
ship was performed. o her writer's, prob
ably more accurate, say that there was a
tower in the plain around Chiholula, for
every day in the year. This pyramid is
still one of the wonders of the world. It
is of earth; according to the estimate of
Clavigero, 500 feet high and half mile
q mile in circumference. We assembled to
the top of it in 1917, by winding road,
the'one hundred and twenty terraces spo-
ken Of by Bernal Diaz having disappeared
and left conical surface. The temple,
constructed by the 1oltecs, has been re-
placed by the church of our Lady of Cho-
lala." When We were there, women and
children swarmcd around selling rosaries,
and other objects of religious veneration
or alleged Toltecan relies. Fragments of
pottery, of high polish and exquisite fin
ish, were offered for sale, and we were told
that the mound was full Of them. We
saw some peasants digging them and large
quantities were disintcrrcd near the sur
face. But we could tell, whether or not,
these were the workmanship of the former
inhabitants. Tho city of Cholula, which
once contained, as the early chroniclers
say, 100000 Inhabitants, has dwindled
down into little town, pcoplcd by the
mongrcl race of Spaniards, Indians aud
uegroes,-a sad illustration of the decen-
eracy, springing out of the practical work.
ing of the Jacobin doctrine of the equality
of races.
The second thing which we particularly
noticed, was the word teo or teos, SC nearly
Identical with Meos the Greek name for
God, enters into the names of the dcities,
of the places of worship and of the orders
of Aztecs, Toltects, Totouacs and all the
races of Anahuac. Thus the goddess Of
Heaven with the Totonacs, was Ccntcotl.
Her temple was ou a hill, three miles from
the city of Mexico, where DOW stands the
most renowned church Of the new world,
that of the "'Most Holy Virgin of Guadel-
upe." In the village Of Guadalupe at the
foot of this hill, was signed in 1913, the
treaty Of peace between the American and
Mexican Commissioners. The temples
were all called teo-calli, house of God, or
teo-pan, place of Ged, A sacred district,
q religious possession, was called Teo-tal-
pan, land of God. Twenty miles from the