calculation by which it is found is quoted from the later portion of the
"Codex Chimalpopoca" as follows: "Six times 400 years plus 113 years"
previous to the year 1558 A.D. This is given as the date of a division
of the land by the Nahuas. The division was made 2513 years previous to
1558 A.D., or in 955 B.C. If this date could be accepted as authentic,
it would follow that the Nahuas or Toltecs left Huehue-Tlapalan more
than a thousand years previous to the Christian era, for they dwelt a
long time in the country of Xibalba as peaceable settlers before they
organized the civil war which raised them to power.

SOME CONFIRMATION OF THIS HISTORY.

That the ancient history of the country was something like what is
reported in the old writings seems not improbable when we consider the
condition in which the native population was found three hundred and
fifty years ago. This shows that Mexico and Central America had been
subjected to disrupting political changes caused by violent transfers of
supreme influence from one people to another several times in the course
of a long history. Such a history is indicated by the monuments, and its
traces were noticeable in peculiarities of the native inhabitants of the
various districts at the time of the Spanish Conquest. They are still
manifest to travelers who study the existing representatives of the old
race and the old dialects sufficiently to find them. There were several
distinct families or groups of language, and, in many cases, the people
represented by each family of dialects were in a state of separation or
disruption. To a considerable extent they existed in fragmentary
communities, sometimes widely separated.

The most important group of related dialects was that which included the
speech of the Mayas, Quiches, and Tzendals, which, it is supposed,
represented the language of the original civilizers, the Colhuas.
Dialects of this family are found on both sides of the great forest.
There were other dialects supposed to indicate Toltec communities; and
there were communities south of Mexico, in Nicaragua, and even farther
south, which used the Aztec speech. Very likely all these differing
groups of language came originally from the same source, and really
represent a single race, but comparative philology has not yet reported
on them. Mention is made of another people, called Waiknas or Caribs,
and conjecture sees in them remains of the aboriginal barbarians termed
Chic