[38] "The Toltecs appeared first in the year 648, the Chicimecs in 1170, the Nahualtecs 1178, the Atolhues and Aztecs in 1196. The Toltecs introduced the cultivation of maize and cotton; they built cities, made roads, and constructed those great pyramids which are yet admired, and of which the faces are very accurately laid out. They knew the use of hieroglyphical paintings; they could work metals, and cut the hardest stones; and they had a solar year more perfect than that of the Greeks and Romans. The form of their government indicated that they were the descendants of a people who had experienced great vicissitudes in their social state. But where is the source of that cultivation? Where is the country from which the Toltecs and Mexicans issued?"--HUMBOLDT, _Essay Politique_, vol. i. p. 100. CHAPTER XXI. Walk to Guadalupe.--Our Embassador kneeling to the Host.--An Embassador with, and one without Lace.--First sight of Santa Anna.--Indian Dance in Church.--Juan Diego not Saint Thomas.--The Miracle proved at Rome.--The Story of Juan Diego.--The holy Well of Guadalupe.--The Temple of the Virgin.--Public Worship interdicted by the Archbishop.--Refuses to revoke his Interdict.--He fled to Guadalupe and took Sanctuary.--Refused to leave the Altar.--The Arrest at the Altar. "_Placuit pinturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur vel adoratur, in parietibus pingatur_--Pictures ought not to be in the churches, nor should any that are reverenced or adored be painted upon the walls." So say the canons of the Council of Toledo. I was one of a vast crowd that, on a Sunday of December, 1853, were hurrying out of the city by the old gate and causeway of Tepeac to the suburban village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, once Tepeac, but now consecrated to the Virgin Mary, who, tradition says, appeared there in a bodily form to an Indian _peon_. Juan Diego was the name of the Indian, and 1531 is the date assigned to the incident. I shall hereafter take occasion to relate the story as given by the veracious Juan, and duly attested by authority which ought to be competent to settle the question, if any thing can do so. I hope that my readers will do their best to believe it. If they honestly endeavor to do so, and do not succeed, I trust they will not suffer on account of their lack of faith.