Chalco Lake is, in the opinion of Señor Ramirez, the point of departure for the fifteen chiefs at the end of their first cycle. His interpretation of the Boturini map of the migration results in the same conclusion. The fifteen chiefs left their island home, passing through Coloacan (Colhuacan, according to Gondra’s interpretation) as their second station. It appears that the first move and point of departure are both unknown, and no satisfactory solution of the question has yet been offered. The prevailing tradition that it is in the north has been perplexing, since no material remains undoubtedly attributable to the Aztecs are found north of the central plateau of Mexico, nor indeed in the territories of the United States. If we adopt the general theory that the Aztecs came from the Mississippi Valley, possibly the original home of the Nahuas, occupied by the Olmecs prior to their arrival at Panuco and their descent into the Chiapan region, and by the Toltecs before their migration to Anahuac, we have a theory which agrees with the testimony of Duran and Sahagun, and seems to find support in the pyramidal mounds of the Lower Mississippi, which we have already seen are almost as perfect in their plan and construction as those found in Mexico, which do not furnish evidence of as great antiquity as those of the Ohio and Missouri Valleys. According to most accounts, a considerable period elapses between their departure and their arrival at Chicomoztoc—the seven caves. According to Veytia it was 104 years, but Brasseur adopts twenty-six years, which is also the opinion of the majority of writers. Chicomoztoc has some features which remind us of the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés—their seven caves, from which so many tribes derived their origin. Chicomoztoc is the point at which the six Nahuatlaca tribes separated from the Aztecs, and thence proceeded to the Mexican lake region. It is quite probable that a considerable distance may have been traversed in this interval of twenty-six years, a distance which could have brought the Aztecs from a comparatively northern latitude to the Chiapan region. Opposed to this, however, is the fact that the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés was in a cold, inhospitable region, no doubt at the North. Mr. Bancroft suggests that the first part of the migration tradition may refer vaguely back to the events which followed the Toltecs’ destruction.[423] We have already referred to the tendency to confusion in histories that are chiefly traditional. In opposition to the view that Aztlan and Chicomoztoc were remote from each of these, we have the statement of Duran[424] that these caves are in Teo-Culhuacan, otherwise called Aztlan, which implies that both Teo-Culhuacan and Chicomoztoc were points in the region of Aztlan. Every year it was the custom of the Aztecs, while in Aztlan, to cross a river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan in order to sacrifice to their god Tetzauh, and after their arrival