Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

Mexico.
Succeeded
by the Chi-
chemecas.
Xolotl their
£rft king.
His people
civilized by
the Tolte-
New inha¬
bitants ar¬
rive and ob¬
tain fettle-
m exits.
M E X [746
and brought the plague ; and, finally, at the perfua-
fion of the fame devil, they abandoned the country of
Tula.”
1 hey were fucceeded by the Chichemecas, a much
more barbarous people, who came from an unknown
country called Amuquemecan, where they had for a
lung time relided 5 but of which no traces of remem¬
brance can be found among any of the American na¬
tions known to Europeans 5 fo that Clavigero fuppufes
it mult have been very far to the northward.
1 he motive which the Chichemecas had for leaving
the ir own country is not known. They were eighteen
months on their journey, and took pofleffion of the
defolate country of the Toltecas about an hundred
years after the former had left it. They were much
more uncivilized than the Toltecans } but, however,
had a regular form of monarchical government, and
in other refpedfs were lefs difgufting in their manners
than fome of the neighbouring nations. The lafl.
king who reigned in Amaquemecan before the depar¬
ture of the Chichemecas, had left his dominions between
his two fons Auchcauhtli and Xolotl, and the latter
conducted the new colony. Having proceeded from
the ruins of Tula towards Chempoalla and Tepepolio,
Xolotl fent his fon to furvcy the country. The prince
eroded the borders of the lakes and the mountains
which furround the vale of Mexico ; then afcending
to the top of a very high one, he viewed the whole
country, and took pofleffion of it in the name of his
father, by Ihooting four arrows to the four winds.
Xolotl being informed by his fon of the nature of
the country, chofe for the capital of his kingdom Te-
nayuca, about fix miles to the northward of the city
of Mexico, and diflributed his people in the neigh¬
bouring territory ; but as moll of them went to the
northward, that part obtained the name of the coun¬
try of the Chichemecas, in diftindtion from the reft.
Here a review of the people was taken, and their num¬
ber, according to Torquemada, was more than a mil¬
lion.
Xolotl finding himfelf peacefully fettled in his new
dominion, fent one of his officers to explore the fources
of fome of the rivers of the country. While perform¬
ing this talk he came to the habitations of fome Tol¬
tecans, who it feems had ftill kept together, and were
likely once more to become a nation. As thefe peo¬
ple were not inclined to war, and greatly efteemed for
their knowledge and fkill in the arts, the Chiche¬
mecas entered into a ftrift alliance with them, and
Prince Nopaltzin, who had firfl furveyed the country,
married a Toltecan princefs. The confequence of
this alliance was the introduftion of the arts and
knowledge of the Toltecans among the Chichemecas.
Till now the latter had fubfifled entirely by hunting,
and fuch fruits and roots as the earth fpontaneoufly
produced. They were clad in the fkins of wild beafts,
and, like thefe beads, they are faid to have fucked
the blood of the animals they caught •, but after their
connexion with the Toltecans they began to fow corn,
to learn the art of digging and working metals, to
cut Hones, manufa61ure cotton, and, in every refpect,
to make great improvements.
When Xolotl had reigned about eight years in his
new territories, an embaffy of fix perfons arrived from
a diftant country not far from Amaquemccan, expreffing
4-
1
M E X
a defire of coming with their people to refide in the Mexico.
country of the Chichemecas. I he king gave them J
a gracious reception, and affigned them a diltridt;
and, in a few years after, three other princes, with a
great army of Acolhuans, who were likewife neigh¬
bours of Amaquemecan, made their appearance. The
king was at that time at Tezcuco, to which place he
had removed his court : and here he was accofted by
the princes, who, in a fubmiffive and flattering man¬
ner, requefted him to allow them a place in his hap¬
py country, where the people enjoyed fuch an excel¬
lent government. Xolotl not only gave them a fa¬
vourable reception, but offered them his two daugh¬
ters in marriage, expreffing his concern that he had
no more, that none might have been excluded from
the royal alliance. On the third prince, however, he
bellowed a noble virgin of Chaleo, in whom the Tol¬
tecan and Chichemecan blood were united. The nup¬
tials wrere celebrated with extraordinary pomp ; and
the two nations, after the example of the fovereigns,
continued to intermarry. As the Acolhuans were the
more civilized nation of the tw'o, the name of Chi¬
chemecas began to be appropriated to the more rude
and barbarous part, who preferred hunting to agricul¬
ture, or chofe a life of favage liberty in the mountains
to the reftraints of focial laws. Thefe barbarians afib-
ciated with the Otomies, another favage nation who
lived to the northward, occupying a traft of more than
three hundred miles in extent ; and by their defet nd-
ants the Spaniards were haraffed for many years after
the conqueft of Mexico.
As foon as the nuptial rejoicings were over, Xolotl o;viflon 0f
divided his territories into three parts, affigning onethedomi-
to each of the princes. Acolhuatzin, who had mar-nions of
ried his eldell daughter, had Azcopazalco, 18 milesXolot1,
to the wefhvard of Tezcuco 5 Chiconquauhtli, who
married the other, had a territory named Xaltocan j
and Tzontecomatl, wrho married the lady of inferior
rank, had one named Coatlichan. The country con¬
tinued for fome time to flourilh, population increafed
greatly, and with it the civilization of the people ;
but as thefe advanced, the vices of luxury and ambi¬
tion increafed in proportion^, Xolotl found himfelf
obliged to treat his fubjefls with more feverity than
formerly, and even to* put fome of them to death.—
This produced a confpiraey againft him, which, how¬
ever, he had the good fortune to efeape $ but wffiile
he meditated a feVere revenge on the confpirators, he
was feized with the diffemper of which he died, in
the fortieth year of his reign, and in a very advanced
age- . . 8
Xolotl was fucceeded by his fon Nopaltzin, who at Nopaltzi*
the time of his acceffion is fuppofed to have been the fecond
about fixty years of age. In his time, the tranquilli-^S*
ty of the kingdom, which had begun to fuffer difturb-
ance under his father, underwent much more violent
ffioeks, and civil wars took place. Acolhuatzin, the
only one of the three princes who remained alive,
thinking the territory he poffeffed too narrow, made
war upon the lord of a neighbouring province named
Tapotzotlan, and deprived him of his territory. Huet-
zin, fon to the late Prince Tzontecomatl, lord of
Coatlichan, fell in love with the grand-daughter of
the queen, a celebrated beauty, but was rivalled by a
neighbouring lord, who determined to fupport his
pretenfions