Page:The Story of Mexico.djvu/56



III.

TOLTECS.

connected chain of events begins with the traditions of the Toltecs upon the plateau of Anahuac. Their farthest ancestors, they supposed, founded the city of Huehue-Tlapallan far to the north, perhaps on the shores of the Colorado River. There they lived from generation to generation, nobody knows how long, until great civil wars broke out in their nation, and a part, deserting their ancient homes, wandered down towards the south. This was in the year 544 of our era.

Guided by their great chief Huematzin, the Toltecs wandered over the sandy plains in the north of Mexico till they came to the land "near the water," fertile and promising, and finally settled in a place they called Tollanzinco. Not far off, in the course of time, they founded their great city of Tollan, now Tula, which became the centre of the Toltec nation.

These people built so well and so Rh