ilized world. Finally, in the name
of the city, Culhuacan, we had a substantial fact which connected the
extraordinary story that had come to us so strangely with matters within
our own knowledge. For this name not only is given in the Aztec
traditions as that of the sacred spot in which their god Huitzilopochtli
spoke to them, but survives until this present day in the name of the
village that lies at the foot of the sacred mountain, in the Valley of
Mexico, called by the Aztecs the Hill of Huitzachtla, and by the
Spaniards the Hill of the Star--on which, at the end of each cycle of
fifty-two years, the sacred fire was renewed. Surely it was no accident
that had caused the name Culhuacan to be given to this village on this
sacred spot; rather must it have been so named by the elect few to whom
the secret was known as a perpetual reminder to them of the reserve of
men and treasure upon which they could draw should danger threaten their
country and their gods.

"No doubt," said Fray Antonio, "what is here told of a secret record,
known only to the priests, supplies one of the lapses in the pictured
history of the Aztec migration; but as we know not which break in the
history is thus filled in, we have no clew whatever as to the
whereabouts of this hidden place. Nor have we any clew as to the
whereabouts of the mission of Santa Marta, whence we might go onward,
guided by the carvings upon the rocks, until we found at last the place
we sought. The mission of Santa Marta, where my brother Francisco long
ago ministered, might have been anywhere in all Mexico; and being so
small a mission, and enduring for so short a period, it is not likely
that any record of it anywhere has been preserved. Had we but the map
and the token of which my brother writes, our way would be clear;
without these guides it well may be a toilsome way and long. Yet do I
know," Fray Antonio continued, earnestly, "that I shall find this hidden
city. In my soul is a strong and glad conviction that God has called me
to the most glorious work of carrying to the heathen dwelling there the
message of His saving love. He has worked one miracle already to call me
to this duty; in His own good time and way I doubt not that He will work
another miracle by which I may be set in the way of its accomplishment."

As Fray Antonio spoke of the map of the Aztec migration, a hope came
into my heart that, as I considered it, seemed surely to be a certainty.
In the excite