Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/581

Rh Ek. II. Ch. I. INTRODUCTORY. 565 their homes, and they migrated, it is said, southwards to Yucatan ; where it is usually assumed that they erected the architectural monu- ments we now hnd in that country. Central America is, however, one of the most fertile countries in the world, and capable of supporting — indeed did support — an immense population with very little labor; so it seems probable that it was inhabited long before the time mentioned.i This, however, by no means militates against the idea that the Toltecs may have been the first to communicate to their new country many of the arts they had elaborated in Anahuac. Indeed, it is to such a combination of two not very dissimilar races that all the greatest results in art or civilization have been attained in other parts of the world, and it may have been the case here also. Politically the annals of Anahuac are a blank between the de- parture of the Toltecs and the arrival of the Aztecs in the middle of the l'2th century. These seem to have been a people of different race from the former occupants of the valley, but sufficiently akin to take up the previous civilization ; and being reinforced by successive immi- grations of tribes of the same race, and speaking apparently similar languages, they had at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards fully re-peopled the valley and elaborated a very considerable degree of civilization. Again, everything we read of, and every indication we have, leads lis to suppose that the greatest development of civilization in Mexico took place immediately before the Spanish Conquest, and thus that the time of highest prosperity was that which directly preceded its destruction. Four centuries had a])parently sufficed to convert a tribe of Red Indians into a tolerably civilized community. Whatever their civilization may have been, it could not have attained a ^ery permanent character, for it vanished like a phantom at the first toucli of the European ; and the remnants of the Indians who still remain are as incompetent creatures as exist in any part of the world. Till the investigations of the ethnologist are further advanced, it is impossible to feel any great confidence in the various theories that have been advanced on this subject. Without wishing to put it for- ward as a thing to be relied upon, it appears to me that the following scheme meets more nearly than any otiier the requirements of the case, while it amalgamates more perfectly the various facts ascertained by scientific men. It is generally admitted that two races of men are found, either noAV living or wliose remains are found in Mexican sepulchres. One of these is said to be allied to the Esquimaux, or races of that class, ' The evidence collected by the Abbe j liuan tepee," seems, if it can be depended Brasseur de Bourbourg, " Voyage de Te- | upon, to confirm this idea.