Meanwhile the exiles from Huehue Tlapallan were tarrying at Tulancingo, where they had arrived toward the end of the seventh century,[IV-7] and where--contrary to the advice of their prophet Hueman, if we may credit the tradition--weary with their long wanderings, they lived from sixteen to twenty years in a house which they built sufficiently large to accommodate them all. During their stay they sent out parties to make settlements in the adjoining territory, as had been their custom wherever they had stopped in their long migration. Finally they listened to the counsels of the venerable Hueman, and, still under the command of their seven chiefs, transferred their home to Xocotitlan on the river Quetzalatl, since called Tula, Tullanatl, or Montezuma, where they founded the city of Tollan,[IV-8] where now stands the little village of Tula, about thirty miles north-west of the city of Mexico. According to Brasseur the Otomí city that stood here before the coming of the Toltecs was called Mamhéni. It cannot be supposed that the Otomís yielded up their fertile valley to the strangers without a struggle; but the relation of this struggle like that of many a subsequent one in which the Toltecs must have engaged in order to establish and maintain their power, seems to have been intentionally omitted in the native annals as recorded by the Spanish writers.
During the first six years of their stay in the valley of the Quetzalatl, the Toltecs gave their attention to the building of the new city, and the careful cultivation of the surrounding lands; at least such is the account given by Ixtlilxochitl and those who have followed him; but, according to Brasseur's interpretation, they spent the six years in the conquest of the province and siege of the ancient city which they re-named Tollan. Up to this time the exiles from Huehue Tlapallan had lived under the command of the rebel princes Chalcaltzin and Tlacamihtzin with their five companions acting as chiefs of the different families,[IV-9] but all acting under the directions of Hueman the prophet. The great age attributed to both prophet and chiefs, who for over a century at the least had directed the wanderings of their people, does not, of course merit serious discussion, since it cannot be literally accepted. The most natural, yet a purely conjectural, interpretation of the tradition is that a line or family of chieftains is represented by its founder or by its most famous member; and that by Hueman is to be understood the powerful priesthood that ruled the destinies of the Toltecs, from the earliest days to the fall of their empire. The government was a theocratic republic, each chief directing the movements of his band in war and, so far as such direction was needed, in peace, but all yielding, through fear of the gods or veneration for their representatives, implicit obedience to the counsels of their spiritual leader in all matters of national import. But in the seventh year after their arrival in Tollan, when the republic was yet in a state of peace and prosperity, undisturbed by foreign or internal foes, the chiefs convened an assembly of the heads of families and the leading men. The object of the meeting was to effect a change in the form of their government, and to establish a monarchy. The motive of the leaders, as represented by the tradition, was a fear of future disturbances in a commonwealth governed by so many independent chieftains. They recommended the election of an absolute monarch, offering to surrender their own power and submit to the rule of whatever king the people might choose. The members of the convention acquiesced in the views of the chieftains, and approved the proposed change in their form of government. An election being next in order, a majority expressed their preference for one of the seven chiefs to occupy the new throne.