o, in
consequence of a revolution or invasion, and from which they had a long
and toilsome migration to the Aztec plateau."

He believes that Huehue-Tlapalan was the country of the Mound-Builders
in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. According to the native books he
has examined, it was somewhere at a distance in the northeast; and it is
constantly said that some of the Toltecs came by land and some by sea.
Sahagun learned from the old books and traditions, and stated in the
introduction to the first book of his history, that the Toltecs came
from that distant northeastern country; and he mentions a company that
came by sea, settled near the Tampico River, and built a town called
Panuco. Brasseur de Bourbourg finds that an account of this or another
company was preserved at Xilanco, an ancient city situated on the point
of an island between Lake Terminos and the sea, and famous for its
commerce, wealth, and intelligence. The company described in this
account came from the northeast in the same way, it is said, to the
Tampico River, and landed at Panuco. It consisted of twenty chiefs and a
numerous company of people. Torquemada found a record which describes
them as people of fine appearance. They went forward into the country
and were well received. He says they were industrious, orderly, and
intelligent, and that they worked metals, and were skillful artists and
lapidaries. All the accounts say the Toltecs came at different times, by
land and sea, mostly in small companies, and always from the northeast.
This can be explained only by supposing they came by sea from the mouth
of the Mississippi River or from the Gulf coast near it, and by land
through Texas. But the country from which they came was invariably
Huehue-Tlapalan.

Cabrera says Huehue-Tlapalan was the ancient country of the Toltecs. Its
simple name was Tlapalan, but they called it Huehue, old, to distinguish
it from three other Tlapalans which they founded in the districts of
their new kingdom. Torquemada says the same. We are not authorized to
reject a fact so distinctly stated and so constantly reported in the old
books. The most we can do against it with any show of reason is to
receive it with doubt. Therefore it seems not improbable that the "Old
Tlapalan" of Central American tradition was the country of our
Mound-Builders.

Another circumstance mentioned is not without significance. It is said,
in connection with this account of the Toltec migration,