Prescott, William Hickling / 2008-06-22 00:00:00

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.
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