al, not because he made them, but because they were
the conclusions of the council.

The "Chief-of-men," the so-called "king," did not properly have any
judicial authority. He was their war-chief, and not a judge; but from
the very nature of his office he had some powers in this direction. As
commander-in-chief, he possessed authority to summarily punish (with
death, if necessary) acts of insubordination and treachery during war.
It was necessary to clothe him with a certain amount of discretionary
power for the public good. Thus, the first runner that arrived from the
coast with news of the approach of the European ships was, by the order
of Montezuma, placed in confinement. "This was done to keep the news
secret until the matter could be investigated, and was therefore a
preliminary measure of policy." Placed at the tecpan as the official
head of the tribe, he had power to appoint his assistants. But this
power to appoint implied equal power to remove, and to punish.<25>

This investigation into their laws and methods of enforcing them,
carries us to the conclusion already arrived at. It is in full keeping
with what we would expect of a people in the Middle Status of barbarism.
We also see how little real foundation there is for the view that this
was a monarchy. There is no doubt but that the pueblo of Mexico was the
seat of one of the largest and most powerful tribes, and the leading
member of one of the most powerful confederacies that had ever existed
in America.

It may be of interest for us to inquire as to what was the real extent
of this power, and the means employed by the Mexicans to maintain this
power; also how they had succeeded in attaining the same. They were not
by nature more gifted than the surrounding tribes. The valley of
Mexico is an upland basin. It is oval in form, surrounded by ranges of
mountains, rising one above the other, with depressions between. The
area of the valley itself is about sixteen hundred square miles. The
Mexicans were the last one of the seven kindred tribes who styled
themselves, collectively, the Nahuatlacs. We treat of them as the
Nahuas.

The Nahuas on the north and the Mayas on the south included the
civilized nations. When the Mexicans arrived in this valley, they
found the best situations already occupied by other tribes of their own
family. To escape persecution from these, they fled into the marsh or
swamp which then covered the territory which they subsequently