Note 29 — Chapter II · JUAN DE GRIJALVA EXPLORES THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 1518.

Not ‘Culba, Culba, Mexico, Mexico,’ as Bernal Diaz has it. The natives pronounced the word Culhua only; but this author, finding that Culhua referred to Mexico, puts the word Mexico into the mouth of Tabasco and his followers. Long before the Aztecs, a Toltec tribe called the Acolhuas, or Culhuas, had settled in the valley of Mexico. The name is more ancient than that of Toltec, and the Mexican civilization might perhaps as appropriately be called Culhua as Nahua. The name is interpreted ‘crooked’ from coloa, bend; also ‘grandfather’ from colli. Colhuacan might therefore signify Land of our Ancestors. Under Toltec dominion a tripartite confederacy had existed in the valley of Anáhuac, and when the Aztecs became the ruling nation, this alliance was reëstablished. It was composed of the Acolhua, Aztec, and Tepanec kingdoms, the Aztec king assuming the title Culhua Tecuhtli, chief of the Culhuas. It is evident that the Culhuas had become known throughout this region by their conquests, and by their culture, superior as it was to that of neighboring tribes. The upstart Aztecs were only too proud to identify themselves with so renowned a people. The name Culhua was retained among the surrounding tribes, and applied before Grijalva to the Mexican country, where gold was indeed abundant.