As favoring this idea of their (the Mexicans) coming immediately from the region of the tower of Babel, their tradition goes on to inform us, that the tongues distributed by this bird were infinitely various, and dispersed over the earth; but that it so happened that fifteen heads of families were permitted to speak the same language. These travelled till they came to a country which they called Aztalan, supposed to be in the regions of the now United States, according to Humboldt. The word _Aztalan_ signifies, in their language, _water_, or a country of much water. Now, no country on the earth better suits this appellation than the western country, on account of the vast number of lakes found there, and it is even, by us, called the lake country. It is evident that the Indians are not the first people who found their way to this country. Among these ancient nations are found many traditions corresponding to the accounts given by Moses respecting the creation, the fall of man by the means of a serpent, the murder of Abel by his brother, &c.; all of which are denoted in their paintings, as found by the earlier travellers among them, since the discovery of America by Columbus, and carefully copied from their books of prepared hides, which may be called parchment, after the manner of the ancients of the earliest ages. We are pleased when we find such evidence, as it goes to the establishment of the truth of the historical parts of the Old Testament, evidence so far removed from the skeptic’s charge of priestcraft here among the unsophisticated nations of the woods of America. Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, says that among the Chiapanese Indians was found an ancient manuscript in the language of that country, made by the Indians themselves, in which it was said, according to their ancient tradition, that a certain person, named _Votan_, was present at that great building, which was made by order of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven: that then every people was given their language, and that Votan himself was charged by God to make the division of the lands of Anahuac—so Noah divided the earth among his sons. Votan may have been Noah, or a grandson of his.