During our migrations south, the Azteca witnessed a vision from Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli told us to move further south as there was a promised land for us there. A land where there would be no suffering or starvation. The presence of this land would be marked by the vision of an Eagle (symbol for the sun) atop a cactus with the atl-tlachinolli in its mouth. Our people thus continued the journey south in search of this promised land. Along the way however, there were many people who did not believe the prophecy to be true and they decided to stay in Aztlan. Due to their lack of faith, 6 tribes broke off from the Azteca, they were the people who would later occupy: Chalco, Xochimilco, Tlaxcala, Malinalco, Texcoco, and Huexotzingo. The last tribe to remain decided to continue the journey south in faith that there would trully be a promised land. Due to our faith in this prophecy we changed our name from Azteca to Mexica in 1116 A.D. Along the way, we were met with much hostility by the civilized agricultaralists of the valley of Mexico. When we arrived in the valley around 1320, the Tepaneca of Colhuacan were the most powerful culture and they subsequently dominated all the villages. The Tepaneca at first attempted to exterminate us but seeing we were great warriors, they decided to allow us to stay on a lot of land in return for our services as mercenaries. It was during this time that we learned architecture, agriculture, and most importantly this is the time in which we adopted the cultures of these nations. The Tepaneca however saw that we were becoming more and more powerful (they also saw that we stubbornely clinged to our Azteca/Chichimeca culture which they considered "usavory and barbaric") as the years passed and they decided to get rid of us. They begun an attack on our villages, and our people were forced into Lake Texcoco, we swam to a nearby island in the middle of the lake and it is here that we took refuge. It was later to be discovered that this island was infested with deadly snakes and scorpions.