d in speech and in other
respects as to seem a distinct people. The Aztecs appear to have dwelt
obscurely in the south before they rose to power. They must have been at
first much less advanced in civilization than their predecessors, but
ready to adopt the superior knowledge and methods of the country they
invaded.

THEY CAME FROM THE SOUTH.

It has sometimes been assumed that the Aztecs came to Mexico from the
north, but there is nothing to warrant this assumption, nothing to make
it probable, nothing even to explain the fact that some persons have
entertained it. People of the ancient Mexican and Central American race
are not found farther north than New Mexico and Arizona, where they are
known as Pueblos, or Village Indians. In the old times that was a
frontier region, and the Pueblos seem to represent ancient settlers who
went there from the south. There was the border line between the Mexican
race and the wild Indians, and the distinction between the Pueblos and
the savage tribes is every way so uniform and so great that it is
well-nigh impossible to believe they all belong to the same race. In
fact, no people really like our wild Indians of North America have ever
been found in Mexico, Central America, or South America.

Investigation has made it probable that the Mexicans or Aztecs went to
the Valley of Mexico from the south. Mr. Squier says: "The hypothesis of
a migration from Nicaragua and Cuscutlan to Anahuac is altogether more
consonant with probabilities and with tradition than that which derives
the Mexicans from the north; and it is a significant fact, that in the
map of their migrations presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of
the Aztecs is designated by the sign of water (_atl_ standing for
Aztlan), a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree."
Humboldt thought this indicated a southern origin.

Communities of Aztecs still exist as far south as Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, with some variations in their speech, but not so great, probably,
as to make them unintelligible to each other. The Spanish historian,
Oviedo, called attention to the fact that an isolated community of
Aztecs was found occupying the territory between Lake Nicaragua and the
Pacific. They were called Niquirans, and Mr. Squier seems to have
verified this fact. The result of his investigation is that the people
of the district specified are Aztecs, and that, "from the comparative
lateness of the separation or som