Note V-39 — Chapter V · THE CHICHIMEC PERIOD.
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Aztlan 'était située au nord-ouest de la Californie.... C'est l'opinion d'un grand nombre d'écrivains. M. Aubin croit qu'ils habitaient la péninsule appelée aujourd'hui la basse Californie, et que là était Aztlan.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 292. Humboldt, Vues, tom. ii., p. 179, and Essai Pol., tom. i., p. 53, followed by Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., pp. 6-7, 19, place Aztlan north of 42° N. lat.; Foster, Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 340-1, Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 20, refer to the account of Oñate's explorations in New Mexico, Doc. Hist. Mex., série iii., tom. iv., pp. 32, 47-8, 111-12, 625, and point to the golden Copalla, with its rumored Aztec-speaking people. See also, Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 454; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. i., p. 68; Ruxton, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1850, tom. cxxvi., pp. 40-9. Fontaine, How the World was Peopled, pp. 149-50, reminds us that the Aztec tl sound is found in the N.W., and considers the mounds in the N.E. to be evidences of Aztec wanderings. Pickering's Races, in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. ix., p. 41; Chevalier, Mexique, pp. 54-5. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, vol. ii., pp. 514-16, regards the Moquis in Arizona as the most northern Aztec remnants. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 156-9, places Aztlan north of the Colorado River, in accordance with some maps of the 16th century, and regards this stream as the water said to have been crossed on the migration, whilst Boturini, Idea, pp. 126-8, holds this to be the Gulf of California. Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., pp. 298, 301; Rios, Compend. Hist. Mex., p. 11. Orozco y Berra, Geografía, pp. 79-82, 134-5, traces Nahuatlaca routes north of Mexico. Duran, Hist. Indias, MS., tom. i., cap. 1, looks to Florida for the ancient home. Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 144, identifies Aztlan with the later Chicomoztoc, like Acosta and Duran, but locates it in the Jalisco region. Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. ii., p. 283. Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. ii., p. 91, ventures a little farther north, to Sonora; see also, Möllhausen, Reisen, tom. ii., pp. 143-55. Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 128, considers Aztlan to have been near Culiacan, but on p. 205, and in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1851, tom. cxxxi., p. 281, he seems to favor the more direct north. Cabrera, Teatro, pp. 94-6, advances some argument for its location in Chiapas. See also, Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 532-3. Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 45, remarks that the palm-tree on the migration-map indicates a southern origin, but Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 7, considers that this may be a thoughtless insertion of the painter. See remarks on pp. 216-18 of this volume, and pp. 681-4, 788-9 of vol. iv. For further remarks on position of Aztlan, and origin of Nahuatlacas, see: Norman's Rambles in Yuc., pp. 266-7; Buschmann, Ortsnamen, p. 54, et seq., Brasseur de Bourbourg, Esquisses, pp. 27-8; Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 191-7; Id., Popol Vuh, pp. clxxxiii.-cxcvi.; Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 203-5; Ruxton's Adven. Mex., pp. 192-4; Cremony's Apaches, pp. 89-90; Gregg's Com. Prairies, vol. i., p. 284; Smith's Human Species, pp. 252-3; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 323.