CHAPTER 4

OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE MEXICANS AND THEIR ROUTE AND THE FOUNDING OF MICHOACÁN

Three hundred and two years having passed since the six clans I have described left their land and settled in that of New Spain, and when the land was well populated and reduced to order and polity, those of the seventh cave or family, which is the Mexican nation, arrived in it; like the others, it came from the provinces of Aztlán and Teuculhuacán. They were a well-organized and civil people and very warlike. These Indians worshiped the idol called Huitzilopochtl which has been described at length above; and the devil, who resided in that idol, spoke to and easily influenced that nation. And so he ordered them to leave their land, promising to make them princes and of all the provinces that the other six nations had settled; that he would give them very extensive lands, much gold, silver, precious stones, feathers, and rich mantles. Accordingly they set forth with their idol placed in an ark made of reeds, carried by four chief priests with whom he communicated; and he revealed to them in secret the events of their journey, telling them what was going to happen, giving them laws and showing them rites and ceremonies and sacrifices. They took not a step without the consent and orders of this idol; he told them when to travel and when to stop and where, and they obeyed him unquestioningly. The first thing they did wherever they stopped was to build a house or tabernacle for their false god, and they always set it in the middle of the camp that they established, with the ark always placed on an altar such as the Catholic church uses. Having done this, they would sow grain for bread and the other vegetables that they used; but they were so steadfast in obeying their god that if he thought it well to harvest the crop they would do so, and if not, when he ordered them to break camp, everything was left to feed the old and sick and exhausted folk, whom they left behind everywhere they settled so that the whole land would be occupied by those of their nation.

Perhaps this departure and pilgrimage of the Mexicans may seem to resemble the exodus from Egypt and the journey made by the children of Israel; for the Mexicans, like the Israelites, were admonished to leave and seek the promised land, and both peoples carried their god with them as a guide, and consulted the ark and made tabernacles, and their god advised them and gave them laws and ceremonies, and one people as well as the other spent a large number of years in reaching the promised land. That there is a resemblance in all this, and in many other things as well, between what is told in the history of the Mexicans and that which Divine Scripture tells of the Israelites, is assuredly the case.' For the devil, prince of pride, tried when he dealt with these people and subjected them to his will to imitate what the most high and true God did with his people; because, as I have mentioned above, Satan has a strange compulsion to resemble God, whose familiarity and dealings with men this mortal enemy falsely attempted to usurp. A demon who conversed with men in this way, like this demon Huitzilopochtli, has never been seen before. And who he was is unmistakable, for rites more superstitious and sacrifices more cruel and inhuman than those he showed to his followers have never been witnessed or even heard of; in a word, they are dictates of the enemy of the human race himself.

The chief and captain whom these people followed was named Mexi, and from him was later derived the name of Mexico and the name of his nation the Mexicans. Traveling onward, therefore, as slowly as the other six nations had done, settling, sowing, and harvesting in different places (of which there are signs and ruins to this very day), and undergoing many trials and perils, after a long time they came to the province called Michoacán, which means "land of fish," for it has many large and beautiful lakes; and there, pleased with the location and coolness of the land, they determined to rest and remain. But on consulting their idol and learning that he was not content with the place, they asked him at least to leave some of their people there to settle so good a land; and being satisfied with this, he taught them a trick in order to do it. And it was that, when the men as well as the women entered a beautiful lake called Pátzcuaro, they must steal the clothing of those who were to remain behind and then quietly break camp and go away, and this is what they did. When the others, who had not noticed the trick because of their pleasure in bathing, emerged and found themselves despoiled of their clothing, and thus deceived and left abandoned by their companions, they were very hurt and vexed; and in order to demonstrate the hatred they felt for them it is said that they changed their style of dress and even their language. At least it is certain that these folk of Michoacán were always enemies of the Mexicans and hence came to congratulate the Marques del Valle for the victory he won when he conquered Mexico.