Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/342

Rh powerful an Empire existed in all its splendor, while the pyramids, temples, palaces, and edifices which are represented in the plates accompanying these letters, were abandoned to the forest and its beasts. I cannot believe, that in so small a geographical space there could be such palpable anachronisms,—so much light in one spot with so much blackness next it;—that people, at the height of social and architectural refinement, should have had neighbors at the distance of 100, 200, or 300 miles, who were utter savages, while, a few degrees farther south, there was another stratum of known civilization in Peru.

I do not rely upon all the dates, assigned by Mexican historians, for the rise and fall of the Toltecs and Aztecs. There is doubt among the best writers on these subjects. The period, during which their emigration from the north continued, may be correct; but I question the accuracy of the time given for the commencement and spread of their respective monarchies, especially, when we remember the numbers who fell either in battle or under the sacrificial knife. The empires were exceedingly populous, and it would seem to have required centuries to gather all the population that existed in the vale of Anahuac after the ravages that terminated the Toltec sway. Besides this, the Mexicans rose to great refinement from absolute barbarism, or from the comparative ignorance and bad habits they had contracted during a long emigration. This requires time. The growth of nations is gradual. How long did it require to pile up the hill of Xochicalco—to dig its ditch of a league in extent—to quarry its immense stones—to bring them from their distant caves—to bear them to the summit of the mound—to pile them up in the several stories of the pyramid—and, lastly, to cover the whole with elaborate carving? How long did it require to prepare the mind of a nation, step by step, for the idea and construction of such an edifice;—which, we must remember, is but one out of thousands!

It is difficult to determine what might have been the extent of our knowledge of all the questions with which I began this letter, if the holy fathers, instead of making bonfires of Mexican records, had studied them with antiquarian zeal. Yet, I have at least satisfied myself, that if we know nothing of the origin of the people of America, we may at least be confident that Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, Mexico, Xochicalco, Teotihuacan, Cholula, Papantla, Tusapan, and Mitla, were the dwellings and temples of civilized nations at the period of the Spanish conquest. If ever the city of which Mr. Stephens heard, as existing among the mountains, (unvisited hitherto by white men,) is penetrated by some future band of adventurous travellers, the mystery may, perhaps, be solved. That such a city exists, I think by no means improbable, when it is recollected, that near the town of Cuernavaca, not more, perhaps, than seventy miles from the Capital of Mexico, there is a populous and well governed Indian village, enjoying its native habits, and refusing to hold intercourse with the Spaniards. How much more probable that there should be primitive tribes of which we have not the slightest information