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152 Acolhuans. They finally adopted the monarchical form of government, and gaining the ascendency, maintained it till the arrival of the Spaniards. At that time remnants of the most of the tribes here mentioned were to be found, here or there in the country, mingled with small primitive tribes of quite a distinct race, some of which are supposed, with apparent reason, to have inhabited New Spain before the arrival of the Toltecs.

And now, who built the pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan? who laid the foundations of the colossal teocalli of Cholula? Some say the Toltecs—others the Olmecas or the Xicalancas, people of an equally remote origin; and all agree in attributing them to the earliest times of which traditional record exists.

There is no saying by what people, or at what epoch they were raised, nor to what forms of idol worship they were in succession consecrated; but from the tangled thread of tradition, sufficient may be unravelled to show the original design of these monuments, and what were the facts of which they were to be the remembrance to future ages: and tradition, while perhaps it does the wise and skilful Toltecs but justice, when it ascribes to them the elaborate sculpture strewed over the face of New Spain and Central America, might do them no wrong in attributing these vast erections, and many of the great works extant on the table land, to a far higher antiquity. At what epoch of the world's history the vast western continent became peopled by the human race, is a question which has given rise to many discussions and different hypotheses.

The idea of its early occupation would appear to be perfectly consistent both with analagous reasoning, and with the testimony to be gathered from the traditions and customs, civil and religious, of the aborigines themselves, throughout the continent. Is it not to be supposed, that, however brought about, the same Almighty hand which scattered the congregated descendants of Noah abroad upon the face of all the earth, would fulfil its design with regard to this portion of the habitable surface of the globe also, and that speedily? And if the