288



ORIGIN OF THE



These languages exceed twenty, fourteen of which have
grammars and dictionaries. The following are their
names.   The Mexican, or Aztec language, spoken by
the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Acoluchecs, Nahuatl acs, and
Aztecs, thus indicating an identity of origin. This lan-
guage is the most widely diffused of all the Mexican lan-
guages, extending from 37 N. Lat. as far south as the
lake of Nicaragua, a distance of more than 1200 miles.
The other languages, indicating as mnany different tribes,
are the Otomite, 'rparasc, Zapotee, Mistece, Maye, or
Yucatan, Totonac, Papolouc, Matlazing, Huaste, Mixed,
Caquiquil, Taranmar, Tepehuan, and the Cors. The
most part of these languages are, undoubtedly, different
from each other; but the intermixture of one tribe with



the other, their separation into in
formation into different nations,'
duce, in the process of time, new
so that if we can trace the origin
universal language, which is the
may fairly conclude that the Ni



[ew



Woln
and
oft



countries, and their
id, inevitably, pro-
strange languages,
he most ancient and



e Mexican or Aztec, we
[exican is the common



sourse of all the other dialects, and that the Mexicans
must consequently be the progenitors of all the other tribes
Of the five tribes which constitute the present Mexican
naton theToltecs first made their appearance fifty miles to
the east of the city of Mexico, in648. They declared them-



selves expel
of the Rio
The date o.
paintings, v
migration, 1
years before
remarkable
ruin of the



[led from a country lving to the north-west
Gila, and called by theil Huehuetlapallan.
f their emigration is fixed in the Mlexican
which describe year by year the events of this
which commenced in 544 of our era, or 104
e their settlement in Mexico; and it is very
that this epoch of 544, corresponds with the
dynasty of Tsin, in China, which caused



such great commotions among the nations of eastern
Asia. About one hundred vears after the Toltecs had
left Huehuetlapallan, the Chichimecs took possession of
it. These were a much more rude and unpolished tribe
than the Toltecs, and came from an unknown country,