has not the halo of Biblical story to recommend it to us, yet Mexico is
not lacking in numberless legends, poetic associations, and the charm of
a tragic history quite as picturesque and absorbing as that of any
portion of the East. Many intelligent students of history believe that
the first inhabitants of this continent probably came from Asia by way
of Behring Strait or the Aleutian Islands, which may at some period in
past ages have extended across the north Pacific Ocean; the outermost
island of this group (Attoo), it will be remembered, is at this time but
four hundred miles from the Asiatic coast, whence it is believed to have
been originally peopled.

Relative to the early peopling of our continent, Bancroft says: "It is
shown pretty conclusively that the American people and the American
civilization, if not indigenous to the New World, were introduced from
the Old at _a period long preceding any to which we are carried, by the
traditional or monumental annals of either continent_. We have found no
evidence of any populating or civilizing migration across the ocean from
east to west, north or south, within historic times. Nothing approaching
identity has been discovered between any two nations separated by the
Atlantic or Pacific. No positive record appears even of communication
between America and the Old World,--intentionally by commercial, exploring,
or warlike expeditions, or accidentally by shipwreck,--previous to the
voyages of the Northmen in the tenth century; yet that such communication
did take place, in many instances and at different periods, is extremely
probable."

The emigrants of whom we have spoken are supposed to have been nomadic,
to have first built cities in the north,--that is, the present United
States; it is not improbable that they were the mound-builders of Ohio
and the Mississippi valleys, and that they afterward migrated southward
into Mexico. These pioneers were called Toltecs, and were settled south
of the Rio Grande a thousand years ago, more or less, their capital
being what is known to-day as the city of Tula, forty miles northwest of
the present capital of Mexico, where many antique and curious remains
still interest the traveler. The names of the nine Toltec kings who
ruled up to A. D. 1097 are well ascertained. It was the fourth
king, if we may believe the chroniclers, who built the city of
Teotihuacan, that is, "the habitation of the gods," the only visible
remains of which a