Mosaic objects, and especially the raw material for their manufacture, formed a part of the annual tribute paid by some of the coast provinces of ancient Mexico to the Aztec kings of Tenochtitlan. We have the pictorial representation of some of the objects of such tribute in an important native book or codex, painted in colors on maguey fiber paper, known as the Tribute Roll of Montezuma. This original codex was at one time in the famous Boturini collection, and is now one of the treasured possessions of the Museo Nacional in the City of Mexico. It lacks, however, several leaves which were abstracted about a century ago, and which came into possession of Joel R. Poinsett, who had been American Minister to Mexico, and who presented them to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia in 1830, where they now are. On the pages have been written explanations of the pictures and figures in both Nahuatl and Spanish. “The Nahuatl words look as if made by a pencil, style, or short brush similar to that used in delineating the figures, and with a sepia-like preparation; while the Spanish ones have evidently been made with an ink containing iron, and an instrument which disturbed the gloss of the paper, as is shown by its penetration to fibres adjacent, giving the lines a sort of hazy margin occasionally.”[23]

Some time between the years 1534 and 1550, Don Antonio de Mendoza, the first Viceroy of Mexico, during this period, had the Indians prepare for the Emperor Charles V, a book on European paper, containing a pictorial account, in colors, of some things relating to the history and life of the natives of the Mexican plateau. It was painted in three sections, the first being a chronological record of the Aztec kings and their conquests, the third relating to the habits and customs of the natives and especially of the education of Mexican youth.

The second part was a copy of the Tribute Roll above referred to. These pictures were given to other Indians for the interpretation of their import, which was written down in the Nahuatl language, and another person, well versed in both the Indian and Spanish languages, made a translation into Spanish, which was incorporated in the book. It was then despatched to Spain, probably about the year 1549, but the vessel was captured by French pirates, and the book came into the hands of the French geographer, André Thevet, in 1553. After Thevet’s death it was purchased, about the year 1584, by Richard Hakluyt, at that time chaplain to the English Ambassador to France. Hakluyt bequeathed the volume to Samuel Purchas, who published it, without colors, with an English translation of the text, in Purchas His Pilgrimes, London, 1625. The English text was translated into French and accompanied with the plates was published by Melchisedec Thevenot in his Relations des Divers Voyages, in 1663. The codex ultimately became the property of Selden, and with some other original Mexican codices later became a part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it is now preserved. In 1831, Lord Kingsborough issued it for the first time in colors, together with a new and more accurate English rendering of the Spanish text, in his monumental work on the Antiquities of Mexico.

The Tribute Roll was published by Archbishop Lorenzana in Mexico in 1770, in his edition of the Cartas de Cortés, the drawing, uncolored, being traced in a very inferior manner from the original in Mexico. Finally, Dr. Antonio Peñafiel included a beautiful colored facsimile of the Tribute Roll in his work, Monumentos del Arte Mexicano Antiguo, published in Berlin in 1890, the missing leaves, in Philadelphia, being reproduced from a very poor drawing of the codex on European paper, probably executed for Boturini. These leaves were published in exact facsimile in 1892, with an article entitled, The Tribute Roll of Montezuma, edited by Dr. D. G. Brinton and Henry Phillips, in vol. XVII of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.

On plate XVIII (we refer to the Peñafiel edition), in the second section of the plate, among other objects of tribute is a small bowl containing pieces of cut turquois (see fig. 1). In the explanation given by Purchas, this item is described as “a little panne full of Turkes stones,” and in the Kingsborough text it has been translated “a little vessel of small turquois stones.” On the plate published by Lorenzana is the caption, “Matlauac Rosilla con q. se tiñe azul.” The word matlauac is probably a corruption of the Nahuatl word matlaltic, meaning ‘blue,’ but the rest of the sentence in Spanish is confused, for rosilla means ‘reddish,’ and con q. se tiñe azul, ‘with which they dyed blue,’ seems to indicate that the phrase is incomplete. Accompanying the objects depicted as tributes are the hieroglyphs of the towns which paid them. These glyphs have been interpreted in the same manner in all of the reproductions of the codex, but we use the spelling adopted by Peñafiel, in preference to that given by Purchas or by Kingsborough. They are: (1) Quiyauhtecpan, “temple of rain or of its deities” Tlaloc or Chalchiuhtlicue; (2) Olinalan, “place of earthquakes;” (3) Cuauhtecomatlan, “place of tecomates;” (4) Cualac, “place of good drinkable water;” (5) Ichcatlan, “cotton-plantation;” (6) Xala, “sandy ground.” These places are given in the explanation as being “cities of warm provinces.”

In the third section of the same plate (XVIII) are the objects shown in figs. 2 and 3. Peñafiel writes of fig. 2 as “ten little figures worked in turquois.” Only one object painted blue is depicted, the number ten being indicated by the ten dots. That masks form this tribute is clearly evident; in Purchas the description is “tenne halfe faces of rich blew Turkey stones,” and in Kingsborough, “likewise 10 middling sized masks of rich blue stones like turquois.”

The second item in this section (fig. 3) is described by Peñafiel as “a small bag of the same stones.” Kingsborough’s statement is, “a large bag of the said blue stones,” while in Purchas the translation reads, “a great trusse full of the said Turkey stones.” On the bag which is painted blue, with two red vertical bands, is the Aztecan hieroglyph for stone, tetl. The towns whence this tribute was exacted are: (1) Yoaltepec, “place consecrated to the deity of the night;” (2) Ehaucalco, “in the place of tanning;” (3) Tzilacapan, “river of chilacayotes;” (4) Patlanalan, “place where parrots abound;” (5) Ixicayan, “where the water comes down;” (6) Ichcaatoyac, “river of cotton.” These cities are of the warm provinces.

The only finished objects of mosaic-work in the Tribute Roll are on plate XXXII. This is one of the leaves of the original codex in Philadelphia, and we have traced fig. 4 from this original. They are described by Purchas as “two pieces like platters decked or garnished with rich Turkey stones.” Kingsborough mentions them as “two pieces like salvers ornamented or set with rich turquoise stones.” Lorenzana has correctly printed the legend which we find reproduced in the Philadelphia publication of this leaf; it is “Ontetl xiuhtetl,” followed by the Spanish, “turquesas o piedras finas.” Ontetl is Nahuatl for “two,” and xiuhtetl, or xiuitl tetl, “turquois stone.” The mosaic character of these two pieces is graphically represented by the ancient artist. The towns paying the tribute illustrated on this sheet are as follows: (1) Tochpan, or Tuchpan, “over the rabbit;” (2) Tlaltizapan, “place situated over chalk;” (3) Cihuateopan, “in the temple of Cihuacoatl;” (4) Papantla, “place of the priests;” (5) Ocelotepec, “place of the ocelot;” (6) Mihuapan, “river of the ears of corn;” (7) Mictlan, “place of rest.”

In the Crónica of Tezozomoc is an account of the campaign of the Aztecan king Ahuitzotl into southern Mexico in 1497. The towns of Xuchtlan, Amaxtlan, Izhuatlan, Miahuatla, Tecuantepec, and Xolotlan, in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, had revolted against him. After the complete rout of the rebellious Indians, it was related by Tezozomoc that “the kind of arms carried by the coast people was very rich, so much so that the undisciplined soldiers began to strip the bodies of the dead of the very rich feather-work pieces called quetzalmanalli, and from their military ornaments remove a round emerald like a mirror which sparkled in its perfection, called xiuhtezcatl. Others of the dead carried on the back of their arms that which was called yacazcuil, outside of fine gold, and in the nose they wore stones; others (wore) gold, and the shield which they carried had a very rich greenstone in the center, and around it a decoration of very fine stones set in (mosaic-work), said shield being called xiuhchimal.” Those who remained after the slaughter came to Ahuitzotl, saying: “Our Lords, let us speak. We will give our tribute of all that is produced and yielded on these coasts, which will be chalchihuitl of all kinds and colors, and other small stones called teoxihuitl (turquois) for setting in very rich objects [mosaic], and feathers of the richest sort brought forth in the whole world, very handsome birds, the feathers of which are called xiuhtototl, tlaquechol, tzinitzcan, and zacuan; tanned skins of the tiger (ocelot), lions (puma), and great wolves, and other stones veined with many divers colors.”[24]

In the same Crónica we read that Montezuma, who succeeded Ahuitzotl after his death in 1502, received a royal tribute from his vassals in Xaltepec, a coast town of Tehuantepec, among which were “broad collars [sic] for the ankles, strewn with gold grains and very rich stone mosaic-work.”[25]