Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-01-14

|
! from an eastern country; and, second, the eX'
! istence of an ancient empire known as Huehue'
Tapalan, from which the Totecs or Nahuas
! came to Mexico, in consequence of revolution
| or invasion, and from which they had long
and toilsome migration to the Aztec plateau"
He believes that Huehue-Tlapalan was the
country of the mound-builders, in the Mssis.
sippi and Ohio valleys. According to the native
annals to which he refers it was somewhere al
a distance, in the northeast. Some of the
| Toltecs came by land and some by sea. Saba
gun learned from the same annals, and stated
in the introduction to the first book of his his
tory that the Toltecs came from that distant
northeastern country; and he gave an account
of a company that came from the northeast, in
ships, and settled near the Tampico river, and
built a town called Panuco. The first that
came, he says, finally settled in Guatemala,
Brasseur de Bourbourg finds that an account
of the company which came to the Tampico
river, was preserved at Xilanco, according to
which, it consisted of twenty chiefs and a numer-
Gus company Of people. They came from the
northeast in ships, and landed at Panuco. Tor
quemada found record which described them
as people of fne appearance. They went for
ward into the country and were well received.
He says, they were industrious, orderly, and in
telligent and that they worked metals, and
were skilful artists and lapidaries. All the ac-
counts say, the Toltecs came at different times,
by land and sea, mostly in small companies,
and always from the northeast. This can be
explained only by supposing they came by sea
from the mouth of the Mississippi river or from
tie gulf coast near it, and by land through
Texas. But the country from which they came
was Huehue-Tlapalan,
Cabrera says, Huehue.Tlapalan was the an
Gent country of the Toltecs. Its simple name
was Tlapalan; but they called it Huehue, old, TO
distinguish it from three other Tlapalans which
they founded in the districts of their new king
dom. Torquemada says the same. We are
not authorized to reject fact so constantly
stated in the old annals of Central America and
Mexico. The most we can do against it with
any show of reason, is to receive it with doubt.
Therefore, it seems probable that the "Old Tlap-
alan" of those annals was the country of our
mound-builders. There is another statement
which is not without significance. 1t is said
that Huehue-Tlapalan was successfully invaded
tribes, who secured possession of the country.
This invasion is placed at period, which, in
the chronology Of the native books, was long
previous TO the Christian era, and nearly coinci-
dent with the beginning of the Toltec movement
towards Mexico; but the account of it is OBJ
scure
To find a system of chronology in these old
books is not surprising when we consider that
even the Aztecs of Montezuma's time knew
enough of astronomy to have a correct measure
of the year. The Aztecs adopted the methods
of astronomy and chronology, which were used
by their predecessors. They divided the year
into eighteen months of twenty DAYS each; but,
as this gave the year only $50 days, five supple
mentary days were added to each year, and
sixth day to every fourth year. The bissextile
is known to have been used by the Mayas, Teen.
dals, and CLUTCHES, and it was, probably, COM
mon. We can not reasonably refuse to give
some attention to their chronology. Its method
was to count by equal periods of years, as we
count by centuries; and their chronology pre-
sents a series of periods which carries back their
history to a very remote time in the past.
Brasseur de Bourbourg says: sin the histories
written in the Nahuatl language, the oldest GER
tain date is 955 years before Christ" This, he
means, is the oldest date in the history of the
Nahuas or Toltecs, which has been accurately
determined. He finds much Older dates in the
history of the Colhuas. The calculation to find
the above named date, is quoted from an old
manuscript book called the "Codex- Chimalpo-
poca," as follows; "Sx times 400 years plus 113
years" previous to the year 1858, A. D. This Is
given as the date OF a division of the land by
the Nahuas. The division was made 251S years
previous TO 1858, A. d. Or in 955 B. c. If this date
could be accepted as authentic, it would follow
that the Nahuas or Toltecs left Huehue-T lapalan
more than a thousand years previous to the
Christian Era; for they dwelt long time in the
country of Xibalba, as peaceable settlers, before
they organized the civil war that raised them to
power.
SOME CONFIRMATION OF THE HISTORY.
That the history of the country was some
what like what is reported in these old writings,
seems probable. That it is substantially true,
is indicated, not only by the character of the
monuments, but, also, by peculiarities of the
native population, very noticeable at the time Of
the Spanish conquest, and still manifest to
travellers There were several distinct families
of language; and, in many cases, the people
represented by each family of dialects, were in
a state of separation OR disruption. To con-
siderable extent, they existed in fragmentary
communities, sometimes widely separated. The
most important group of related dialects was
that which included the speech of the Mayas
and the Tzendals; and these dialects, it is be-
lieved, represented the language of the original
civilizers,-th Colhuas. There were other di-
alects which had grown out of the Nahuatl
language; and there were communities south of
Mexico, in Nicaragua, and even still further
south, which used the Aztec speech. There is
mention of another people called Waiknas or
CARDS, who may have been remains of the alb
original barbarians known as Chichimecs. They
dwelt chiefly in the "dense, dank forests" found
growing on the low alluvion of the Atlantic
coast, and their speech had no affinity with that
of any other native community. People of this
race constitute a prominent element in the
mixed population of the Mosquito coast,ss
known as Moscos.
In Yucatan, the people were almost wholly
Mayas; and people using dialects related to that
of the Mayas, were very numerous in Tabasco,
Chiapas, Guatemala, and the neighborng dis
tricts; while, all through the country were scat
tered communities, evidently Toltec in origin,
which used dialects that could not be classed
either with these Or with the speech of the
Aztecs. The most reasonable explanation of
this popularity of the population, is that fur
nished by the old chronicles and traditions The
country must have been occupied, at successive
periods, by different races, different peoples,
as the native histories report. When all the ma
tive writings still in existence have been trans
lated, and, especially, when the multitude Of in
scripuons found in the ruins, have been accu-
rately deciphered, we shall be able to form
more intelligent judgment of their significance
and value.
From the State House.
Boston, Friday JAN 10, 1871.
The sessions of both branches of the legsla-
ture to-day, were quite short, and the amount of
business done was correspondingly small. An