elder Montezuma said to Cortez, "Our fathers dwelt in that happy and
prosperous place which they called Aztlan, which means whiteness. . . .
In this place there is a great mountain in the middle of the water which
is called Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over
toward the bottom; and for this cause it is called Culhuacan, which
means 'crooked mountain.'" He then proceeds to describe the charms of
this favored land, abounding in birds, game, fish, trees, "fountains
enclosed with elders and junipers, and alder-trees both large and
beautiful." The people planted "maize, red peppers, tomatoes, beans, and
all kinds of plants, in furrows."

Here we have the same mountain in the midst of the water which Plato
describes--the same mountain to which all the legends of the most
ancient races of Europe refer.

The inhabitants of Aztlan were boatmen. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol.
v., p. 325.) E. G. Squier, in his "Notes on Central America," p. 349,
says, "It is a significant fact that in the map of their migrations,
presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of the Aztecs is
designated by the sign of water, Atl standing for Atzlan, a pyramidal
temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree." This circumstance did
not escape the attention of Humboldt, who says, "I am astonished at
finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. This tree certainly does not
indicate a northern origin. . . . The possibility that an unskilful
artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no
knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent on it hangs upon a
slender thread." ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 266.)

The Miztecs, a tribe dwelling on the outskirts of Mexico, had a
tradition that the gods, "in the day of obscurity and darkness," built