The History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Prescott, William Hickling
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 1350163
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Eris Etext Project
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: 1
subject: cortes
subject: spaniards
subject: capital
subject: country
subject: time
subject: city
subject: aztecs
subject: called
subject: enlarged
subject: latter
subject: days
subject: empire
subject: prescott
subject: william
subject: hickling
subject: history
subject: conquest
subject: mexico
subject: american
subject: literature
type: text
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sort title: History Of The Conquest Of Mexico, The
full text: 1843 THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO by William Hickling Prescott BOOK I: INTRODUCTION View of the Aztec Civilisation Chapter I ANCIENT MEXICO- ITS CLIMATE AND ITS PRODUCTS- ITS PRIMITIVE RACES- AZTEC EMPIRE THE country of the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecs as they were called, formed but a very small part of the extensive territories comprehended in the modern republic of Mexico. Its boundaries cannot be defined with certainty. They were much enlarged in the latter days of the empire, when they may be considered as reaching from about the eighteenth degree north to the twenty-first on the Atlantic; and from the fourteenth to the nineteenth, including a very narrow strip, on the Pacific. In its greatest breadth, it could not exceed five degrees and a half, dwindling, as it approached its south-eastern limits, to less than two. It covered, probably, less than sixteen thousand square leagues. Yet, such is the remarkable formation of this country, that though not more than twice as large as New England, it presented every variety of climate, and was capable of yielding nearly every fruit found between the equator and. the Arctic circle. All along the Atlantic the country is bordered by a broad tract, called the tierra caliente, or hot region, which has the usual high temperature of equinoctial lands. Parched and sandy plains are intermingled with others of exuberant fertility, almost impervious from thickets of aromatic shrubs and wild flowers, in the midst of which tower up trees of that magnificent growth which is found only within the tropics. In this wilderness of sweets lurks the fatal malaria, engendered, probably, by the decomposition of rank vegetable substances in a hot and humid soil. The season of the bilious fever,- vomito, as it is called,- which scourges these coasts, continues from the spring to the autumnal equinox, when it is checked by the cold winds that descend from Hudson's Bay. These winds in the winter season frequently freshen into tempests, …