Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/38

 by their predecessors; the vestiges of human work found under the lavas of Xictli and of Cerro Pelado in the Pedregal of San Angel and on both slopes of Ajusco strongly corroborate this hypothesis. It was then the year 4992 in the chronology of the aborigines. After the cataclysm the Toltecs employed another 104 years, a huehuetiliztli, in establishing themselves in the district, and, in the year 700 of our era, founded their final seat, initiated a new period in the fourth age of the world, arranging the chronology, consolidating their monarchial institutions, and electing their first king.

Chavero agrees with these data, although he believes that six years earlier, in 694, some very important event occurred, which some, like Orozco y Berra, connect with the dedication of the pyramids to the astronomic cult; but he accepts the mentioned date anyway. Torquemada had gathered from the traditions which came within his reach the same date 700, adding that the Toltecs had "wandered" for 104 years before, a statement which accords with others that we have. Clavijero and other authors vary slightly as to the founding of Tula, assigning the dates 661, 667, 674—the Anales de Cuauhtitlan gives this—and even 694, given by Motolinia as the year of the beginning of the epoch; but the date mentioned (700 A.D. ; Ce técpatl in the native calendar), whether we relate it to that event or to the exaltation of the first monarch, best resists analysis for which reason the erudite author of the first volume of México a través de los siglos (Chavero), after a thorough investigation, decides in favor of it. The Anales mentioned, although they declare that Tula was founded in 674, add that the nation existed for twenty-seven years without a monarch, that is to say, they arrived anyhow at the notable date 700. It cannot be denied that the date floats with singular persistency upon the tumultuous waves of tradition. Buelna, whose talent and breadth of documentation no one denies, also encounters it in his investigations, although the learned author of the Peregrinación de los Aztecas refers it to one of the principal stations in the journey of the tribe of Tenoch—the arrival at Mexcala or Coatlicamac—an assertion with which we do not agree, because it conflicts with the statements of the Codex Ramírez, of Duran, and of Chimalpahin, who unanimously assign a much less ancient date to that event. But even if it is not related to the race of the Mexi, the suggestive thing is that this date appears in all the studies, so that surely it does allude to some event of capital importance in the history of the aborigines; and all the circumstances had us admit that it treats of the Toltecs.