ittle body of settlers increased rapidly in number and power, and
made their name terrible throughout the valley, in which various other
tribes had long been settled, until at last they united themselves with
the king of the Tezcucans, to aid him against a tribe called the
Tepanecs, who had invaded his territory. The allies were completely
successful, and this led to an agreement between the states of Mexico,
Tezcuco, and Tlacopan, that they should support each other in all their
wars, and divide all the spoils between them. This alliance remained
unbroken for over a hundred years and under a succession of able
princes the Aztec dominion grew, till at the coming of the Spaniards it
reached across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
The Aztecs had many wise laws and institutions, and were indeed in some
respects a highly civilised community. When their emperor died a new one
was chosen from among his sons or nephews, by four nobles. The one
preferred was obliged to have distinguished himself in war, and his
coronation did not take place until a successful campaign had provided
enough captives to grace his triumphal entry into the capital, and
enough victims for the ghastly sacrifices which formed an important part
of all their religious ceremonies. Communication was held with the
remotest parts of the country by means of couriers, who, trained to it
from childhood, travelled with amazing swiftness. Post-houses were
established on the great roads, and the messenger bearing his despatches
in the form of hieroglyphical paintings, ran to the first station, where
they were taken by the next messenger and carried forward, being sent in
one day a hundred or two hundred miles. Thus fish was served at the
banquets of the emperor Montezuma which twenty-four hours before had
been caught in the Gulf of Mexico, two hundred miles away. Thus too the
news was carried when any war was going on, and as the messengers ran to
acquaint the court with the movements of the royal armies, the people by
the way knew whether the tidings were good or bad by the dress of the
courier. But the training of warriors was the chief end and aim of all
Aztec institutions. Their principal god was the god of war, and one
great object of all their expeditions was the capture of victims to be
sacrificed upon his altars. They believed that the soldier who fell in
battle was transported at once to the blissful regions of the sun, and
they consequ