Note 1 — Chapter IX

In order to protect themselves from the misfortunes which had before crushed them, the Mexicans placed themselves under the safeguard of the King of Azcapotzalco, on whose lands they had established themselves. This prince gave them two of his sons as governors, of whom the first was Acamapuhtli, chief of the Tenochcas. On their arrival in Ahanuec, these Indians had found on the summit of a rock a nopal, in which was an eagle devouring a serpent, and they took their name from it. Acamapuhtli selected this emblem as the totem of the race he was called upon to govern. During the War of Independence, the insurgents adopted this hieroglyphic as the arms of the Mexican Republic, in memory of the ancient and glorious origin of which it reminded them.