anas, chili, and maize, raised almost without labour, in a sn.all nclosure round the hut. Labour, indeed, occupies but a trifling portion of the Indian's time, which is chiefly spent in drinking pulque, sleep, or singing to his wretched maudlins hymns in honour of Notre Dame de Guadalupe, and occasionally carrying votive chaplets to deck the altar of his village church. Thus he passes his life in dreamy indifference, and utterly careless of the ever-reviving emeutes by which the peace of Mexico is disturbed. The assassinations and robberies which the almost impotent government allows to be committed with impunity on the public roads, and even in sight of the capital, are to him only matter for conversation, the theme of a tale or ditty. And why should he trouble himself about it? Hav ing nothing in the world but the dress in which he stands, his lance. spurs, and guitar, he has no fear of thieves; nor will the ponian of the assassin touch him, if he himself, drunk with pulque or ching rito, do not use his own."

di ced niany of the most useful mechanic arts, an improved system of agriculture, the working of metals, and so good a style of archi

As authority for this chapter we have relied entirely upon the First Book of Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, (vol. i. pp. 3-208,) not because we had not at hand abundance of other material for the same purpose, but because we esteem Mr. Prescott the best possible authority, and his history incomparably the best of the ancient Mexicans and the Conquest.

tecture that their name has become a synonyme for architect. They extended their sway over the whole territory of Anahuac, and after exercising their authority during a period of four centuries they silently and mysteriously disappeared. Famine, pestilence, and unsuccessful wars are assigned as the cause of their removal, and it is supposed, by some writers, that they passed into Central America, there to found Mitla, and the more famous Palenque, whose ruins have so well employed the graphic pen of our countryman, Stephens. The grounds of this supposition are found in the accounts given by the conquerors of the remains of their ancient capital, Tula, north of the Mexican valley, and the ruins of noble structures still found in the country and attributed to the Toltecs.

A century after their disappearance a rude tribe called the Chichemecs, entered the country from the north-west, and were speedily followed by other races of higher civilization, who seem to have been of the same family with the Toltecs; the Aztecs, or Mexicans, and the Acolhuans, better known by their later name of Tezcucans, from that of their capital on the western border of the lake. The Tezcucans fraternized with the few remaining Toltecs, and became missionaries of civilization to the Chichemecs. The increase of strength derived from this union enabled the Acolhuans to extend their empire over the ruder tribes in the north; but the still more warlike kindred tribe of Tepanecs who inhabited the same valley, made an attack upon them, beat their armies, assassinated their king, and captured their metropolis. Nezahualcoyotl, the crown prince, displayed at this critical juncture the greatest ability, and by the timely aid of the Aztecs raised his race from this abject state to a new career of prosperity and glory.

These Aztecs had arrived from the remote regions of the north, on the borders of Anahuac, towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, but they wandered about for many years without establishing themselves. At one time they were enslaved by a more powerful tribe, but they regained their freedom, and finally ended their migration by founding, in 1325, the city of Tenochtitlan, now known only by its other name Mexico, derived from Mexitli, the appellation of their god of war. The translation of the former name is "a cactus, on a stone," and has reference to the miraculous origin of the city. The coat of arms of the Mexican republic, the eagle and the cactus also refers to this legend, which relates that on their arrival at the shores of the lake "they beheld perched on the stem of a prickly pear which shot out from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in his talons, and his broad wings opened to the rising sun. They

hailed the auspicious omen announced by the oracle as indicating the site of their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into the shallows; for the low marshes were half buried under water. Upon these they erected their light fabrics of reeds and rushes and sought a precarious subsistence from fishing, and from the wild fowl which frequented the waters, as well as from the cultivation of such simple vegetables as they could raise on their floating gardens. "Such," says the eloquent historian, "were the humble beginnings of the Venice of the western world."

Domestic feuds rendered the condition of the new settlers still worse, and it was a long time before they could aspire to the acquisition of territory on the main land. The increase of their numbers, however, and their improvements in civilization and military discipline at length won for them a reputation for courage which inspired terror because they united with their bravery great cruelty. A hundred years after the foundation of their city, they assumed a new position and a different character among the tribes of the plain of Anahuac.

The assassination of the king of the Tezcucans and the capture of their chief city by the Tepanecs, would have terminated for ever the Tezcucan dynasty but for the character of Nezahualcoyotl, whose history for ten years after the murder of his father, when he was but

Prescott, Conquest of Mexico.

fifteen years of age, is as romantic as that of Alfred the Great, of Scanderbeg, or of Charles the Second. The usurper was succeeded on the throne of the Tepanecs by his son Maxtla, a man of a fierce, suspicious, and tyrannical disposition, who awakened the sympathy of all classes by his incessant persecution of the royal prince, while he estranged the hearts of his subjects and neighbours trom himself by his oppressions. Recalling to mind the mild rule of the Tezcucan princes, the people were beginning to sigh for their restoration at the moment when the active friends of the royal exile, loving him for his worth, were forming a coalition for his relief. An insurrection followed, Nezahualcoyotl soon found himself at the head of a strong force, with which he routed the Tepanec army, and seated himself on the re-established throne of Tezcuco. The Mexicans lent him their aid, and the allied powers, after several bloody battles, routed the usurper under the walls of his own capital. He fled to the baths, whence he was dragged forth to be sacrificed by the Aztecs. His city was razed to the ground, and his territories were awarded to the Mexicans in return for their valuable assistance.

A league offensive and defensive was then made between the three states, Tezcuco, Mexico, and Tlacopan, in agreement with the terms of which they all shared in each other's councils, embarked in each other's enterprises, and moved together until just before the coming of the Spaniards. This league provided for the distribution of the subjugated lands among the parties, and it is one of the most re markable facts in history, that du. ing a century of uninterrupted warfare which ensued, no quarrel occurred over the division of the Spoil, but the treaty was maintained inviolate.