Page 134 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

130 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

The Aztecs had much accurate knowledge of astronomy.
They had determined the length of the solar year within two
minutes and nine seconds of the exact period, as determined by
modern science; and their system of intercalation was more
accurate than any known in Europe at the time of the Mexican
conquest. To account for such knowledge, derived only from
a long series of accurate observations, among a people so bar-
barous in many respects, La Place traces it, in its chief out-
lines, to Asiatic communities, while its details are, in many
respects, quite different froni the Asiatic systems.
The Acolhuans came into the Mexican valley about the close
of the 12th century and established themselves independently
of the Aztecs. They excelled the latter in power and intellec-
tual culture. This kingdom was subdued by a kindred race,
the Tepanees, about the year 1418. They also came from tho
jNorth, with institutions and customs in many respects similar
1;o those of the Aztecs.*
The civil policy of the Aztecs, and their neighbors, the
~Qcolhuans, appears to have been as incongruous, and, (as
affording any clue to a specific origin) as contradictory as their
religious rites and dogmas. The Egyptians, the Persians, the
Chinese, the Hindoos, and even Europeans, seem all to have
contributed something to the civil as well as religious institutions
of the Mexican communities; and all, or nearly all this civili-
zation seems to have penetrated the Mexican Valley from the
north-west coast.
Turning now to the Indian empire of Peru, under the sway
of the Incas, we meet with phenomena strikingly similar to
those we have been contemplating in the valley of Anahuac.
T'he same shingling of one race upon another, all belonging to
the same great family of nations, but differing from each other
in degrees of civilization and in civil and religious institutions,
and the same commingling of incongruous elements in consoli-
dating the whole into one people and one system.
--
* Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, chap. 4.