Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/53

 Rh assigned by the king at Tezcoco various places of residence about the great lake.

Of the Otomies, Xicalancas, and Tepanecs, we have already spoken. If we should go beyond the limits of the great Mexican valley, we should find that there were yet other peoples. There was the powerful nation of Michoacan, which, though the period of its foundation is not exactly known, is thought to have been contemporary with that of Anahuac. The people of this kingdom were the Tarascos, who were in no way less refined than the Acolhuans. Away down in Southern Mexico dwelt several other civilized nations: the Zapotecs, the Miztecs, the Chiapans, and the Mayas of Yucatan, whose history will be dwelt upon at length as we reach them in the course of events. If we confine ourselves to mentioning only the most powerful, and those which figured prominently in the subsequent wars with the Spaniards, it will be sufficient, without confusing the memory with a multitude of long Indian names of comparatively insignificant peoples.

At various times during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, different tribes came straggling into the valley of Anahuac. The most powerful of these belonged (it is thought) to one great nation, and spoke the same language. They were called Nahuatlacas, and came from the land of Aztlan. There were seven tribes: the Sochimilcas, the Chalchese, Tepanecas, Colhuas, Tlahuicas, Tlascallans, and Mexicans.