A few years after a war commenced between the Xochimilcans, one of the tribes who had separated from the Mexicans at Caliacan, and the Cholhuans, in which the Mexicans assisted their enslavers, and behaved so valorously as to gain their liberty. Their conduct was however stained by the cruelty they committed in the action, by cutting off their prisonersʼ ears, and by a human sacrifice, which they made to their divinity after the battle, which consisted of four of the prisoners whom they had reserved. The chief of the Cholhuans commanded them to quit his territory, being disgusted at their barbarity; they moved therefore to a place near the junction of Lakes Chalco and Tezcuco, which place they named Mexicaltzinco; they removed however from this to Iztacalo, nearer the place where Mexico was soon after built. Here they rejoiced for their victory and subsequent liberation, and remained two years, when wandering about, they discovered on an island, in the lake, a sign which their oracles had declared to be the mark of their future resting place; here they accordingly built some miserable huts of reeds, and having taken a Cholhuan prisoner, sacrificed him to their deity, built an altar, and prepared permanently to fix their residence. To this town and island they gave the name of Tenochtitlan, and afterwards building their huts round the altar of Huitzilopochtli or Mexitli, they gave the town the name of Mexico, or the city of Mexitli, their god of war. This took place in the year 1825. The situation of their new town, chosen solely from the omen, was as uncomfortable and as ill-placed, as they could have found on a small island, in a lake without ground for cultivation, or much space for building. There they lived long in a very wretched manner, till at last, impelled by necessity, they drove stakes and made dykes to the neighbouring islets; by which means they shut out the water, and connected the islands, so as to gain considerable space from the lake. By industry they attained sufficient quantities of materials from the neighbouring settlements to erect their habitations and furnish themselves with necessaries, and constructed floating gardens on the water, with the mud of the lake and branches of trees, on which they raised vegetables, &c. Struggling with great distress and difficulties, they remained unanimous and constant in their exertions for thirteen years, when an old quarrel was renewed amongst themselves, and they divided into two factions, who separated, one remaining on the spot, the other going to an island in the vicinity, which they named Tlatelolco, and which was afterwards united to the other by mounds. The original town was now divided into four quarters, and in the centre was built the temple of Mexitli.