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52 boldly jumping to the conclusion that this was a great empire with a sovereign like their own, the victories they describe are, of course, greatly magnified. That this was the impression of Mexico gained by the rude Spanish soldiery we know from the fact that when they first saw the beautiful cities of the valley in their glorious setting of mountain and lake they feared to grapple with a people whose civilization in some respects outshone their own, and but for the dauntless courage and ambition of Cortez they would have turned back on the very threshold without their coveted prize. Two descendants of Tezcucan chiefs, who afterward described their country for the benefit of European readers, give their history the same coloring, claiming the rank of emperors for their ancestors. Further research has shown that all these were fanciful theories, and that not only in Cholula and Tlascala, but throughout Mexico, the republican form of government prevailed.

When the Aztecs came into the valley, they were a group of seven distinct but related families, all speaking one language and worshiping the same gods. The strange, hard syllables of their seven surnames were perpetuated among them until some time near the close of the seventeenth century—almost a hundred years after the Spanish conquest. These families held their lands in common, as all American Indians do, and it is probable that long before they forsook their huts in the swamp for substantial stone houses they lived together on the communal plan. In Stephens's Travels in Yucatan we have a glimpse of Indian village-life as it existed then. The author says: "The food is prepared at one hut, and every family sends for its portion; which explains a singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival—a