5876 last in time of those which are read in the monolith. All pertain to the chronology of the Indians; it is necessary to relate them if possible, to our own.
Let us repeat in order, for greater clearness:
| Direct, that is to say, by summation of elements | Year 4992 (twice) Year 5096 Year 5720 Year 5876 | ||
| Native reading, for us indirect | 13- | ácatl | |
| 1- | técpatl | ||
Two other dates there are, Ce quiáhuitl (1-rain) and Chicome ozomatl (7-monkey), below the great central arrow.
The historian Ixtlilxóchitl, great-grandson of the last king of Texcoco, is held to be the most faithful and informed conservator of the traditions, history, and cosmogony of the Toltecs. There reigns, however, the most extraordinary confusion and an incredible disorder in many of the dates which he gives, which is due to the fact that he did not know how to harmonize the native with the Christian chronology; but the basis of his narrative, submitted to a vigorous analysis and judiciously pruned, very nearly approached historic truth, a cabildo of Indian savants (That of San Salvador Quautlancingo) having certified to the exactitude of his statements. Men of no less merit than Clavijero, Prescott, Count Cortina, Fernando Ramírez, and Manuel Orozco y Berra, have rendered justice to this man, unduly unesteemed by some.
According to the data of the Relaciones, the human species from the creation of the world on had been three times destroyed: the first time by inundations (Atonatiuh or the sun of water); the second by hurricanes (Ehecatonatiuh or the sun of the air), after a lapse of time equal to that which passed before. The third age concluded in the year 4992, which is just 12 complete cycles of 416 years, and ended by terrestrial calamities (wars, eruptions, earthquakes, etc.), “ . . . . those of this earth had another destruction, who were the giants; and thus also many of the Toltecs died in the year Ce técpatl (4993); and this age they called Tlacchitonatiuh (sun of earth).” In it Ixtlilxóchitl places the Ulmecas and the Xicalancas, gives data
24
