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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
Chapter I. Tezcucan Lake}
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$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Mexico
Book:        Book IV. Residence In Mexico.
Author:      Prescott, William H.

Chapter I. Tezcucan Lake

Description Of The Capital. - Falaces And Museums - Royal Household. -
Montezuma's Way Of Life. (1519.)

     The ancient city of Mexico covered the same spot occupied by the modern
capital.  The great causeways touched it in the same points; the streets ran
in much the same direction, nearly from north to south and from the east to
west; the cathedral in the plaza mayor stands on the same ground that was
covered by the temple of the Aztec war-god; and the four principal quarters
of the town are still known among the Indians by their ancient names.  Yet an
Aztec of the days of Montezuma, could he behold the modern metropolis, which
has risen with such phoenix-like splendour from the ashes of the old, would
not recognize its site as that of his own Tenochtitlan.  For the latter was
emcompassed by the salt floods of Tezcuco, which flowed in ample canals
through every part of the city; while the Mexico of our day stands high and
dry on the mainland, nearly a league distant, at its centre, from the water.
The cause of this apparent change in its position is the diminution of the
lake, which, from the rapidity of evaporation in these elevated regions, had
become perceptible before the Conquest, but which has since been greatly
accelerated by artificial causes. ^1

[Footnote 1: The lake, it seems, had perceptibly shrunk before the Conquest,
from the testimony of Motolinia, who entered the country soon after.
Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, Ms., Parte 3, cap. 6.]

     The average level of the Tezcucan lake, at the present day, is but four
feet lower than the great square of Mexico. ^2  It is considerably lower than
the other great basins of water which are found in the Valley.  In the heavy
swell somtimes caused by long and excessive rains, these latter reservoirs
anciently overflowed into the Tezcuco, which, rising with the accumulated
volume of waters, burst through the dikes, and, pouring into the streets of
the capital, buried the lower part of the buildings under a deluge.  This was
comparatively a light evil when the houses stood on piles so elevated that
boats might pass under them; when the streets were canals, and the ordinary
mode of communication was by water.  But it became more disastrous as these
canals, filled up with the rubbish of the ruined Indian city, were supplanted
by streets of solid earth, and the foundations of the capital were gradually
reclaimed from the watery element.  To obviate this alarming evil, the famous
drain of Huehuetoca was opened, at an enormous cost, in the beginning of the
seventeenth century, and Mexico, after repeated inundations, has been at
length placed above the reach of the flood. ^1  But what was gain to the
useful, in this case, as in some others, has been purchased at the expense of
the beautiful.  By this shringking of the waters, the bright towns and
hamlets once washed by them have been removed some miles into the interior,
while a barren strip of land, ghastly from the incrustation of salts formed
on the surface, has taken the place of the glowing vegetation which once
enamelled the borders of the lake, and of the dark groves of oak, cedar, and
sycamore which threw their broad shadows over its bosom.

[Footnote 2: Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 95. - Cortes supposed
there were regular tides in this lake.  (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. xox.)
This sorely puzzles the learned Martyr (De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 3); as it
has more than one philosopher since, whom it has led to speculate on a
subterraneous communication with the ocean!  What the general called "tides"
was probably the periodical swells caused by the prevalence of certain
regular winds.]

[Footnote 1: Humboldt has given a minute account of this tunnel, which he
pronounces one of the most stupendous, hydraulic works in existence, and the
completion of which, in its present form, does not date earlier than the
latter part of the last century.  See his Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 105,
et seq.]

     The chinampas, that archipelago of wandering islands, to which our
attention was drawn in the last chapter, have, also, nearly disappeared.
These had their origin in the detached masses of earth, which, loosening from
the shores, were still held together by the fibrous roots with which they
were penetrated.  The primitive Aztecs, in their poverty of land, availed
themselves of the hint thus afforded by nature.  They constructed rafts of
reeds, rushes, and other fibrous materials, which, tightly knit together,
formed a sufficient basis for the sediment that they drew up from the bottom
of the lake.  Gradually islands were formed, two or three hundred feet in
length, and three or four feet in depth, with a rich stimulated soil, on
which the economical Indian raised his vegetables and flowers for the markets
of Tenochtitlan.  Some of these chinampas were even firm enough to allow the
growth of small trees, and to sustain a hut for the residence of the person
that had charge of it, who with a long pole, resting on the sides or the
bottom of the shallow basin, could change the position of his little
territory at pleasure, which with its rich freight of vegetable stores was
seen moving like some enchanted island over the water. ^2

[Footnote 2: Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 87, et seq. - Clavigero,
Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 153.]

     The ancient dikes were three in number.  That of Iztapalapan, by which
the Spaniards entered, appproaching the city from the south.  That of
Tepejacac, on the north, which, continuing the principal street, might be
regarded, also, as a continuation of the first causeway.  Lastly, the dike
of Tlacopan, connecting the island-city with the continent on the west.  This
last causeway, memorable for the disastrous retreat of the Spaniards, was
about two miles in length.  They were all built in the same Substantial
manner, of lime and stone, were defended by drawbridges, and were wide enough
for ten or twelve horsemen to ride abreast. ^1

[Footnote 1: Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 8. - Cortes,
indeed, speaks of four causeways.  (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 102.)  He
may have reckoned an arm of the southern one leading to Cojohuacan, or
possibly the great aqueduct of Chapoltepec.]

     The rude founders of Tenochtitlan built their frail tenements of reeds
and rushes on the group of small islands in the western part of the lake.
In process of time, these were supplanted by more substantial buildings.  A
quarry in the neighbourhood, of a red porous amygdaloid, tetzontli, was
opened, and a light, brittle stone drawn from it and wrought with little
difficulty.  Of this their edifices were constructed, with some reference to
architectural solidity, if not elegance.  Mexico, as already noticed, was the
residence of the great chiefs, whom the sovereign encouraged, or rather
compelled, from obvious motives of policy, to spend part of the year in the
capital.  It was also the temporary abode of the great lords of Tezcuco and
Tlacopan, who shared, nominally at least, the sovereignty of the empire. ^2
The mansions of these dignitaries, and of the principal nobles, were on a
scale of rude magnificence corresponding with their state.  They were low,
indeed, - seldom of more than one floor, never exceeding two.  But they
spread over a wide extent of ground, were arranged in a quadrangular form,
with a court in the centre, and were surrounded by porticoes embellished with
porphyry and jasper, easily found in the neighbourhood, while not
unfrequently a fountain of crystal water in the centre shed a grateful
coolness through the air.  The dwellings of the common people were also
placed on foundations of stone, which rose to the height of a few feet and
were then succeeded by courses of unbaked bricks, crossed occasionally by
wooden rafters. ^3  Most of the streets were mean and narrow.  Some few,
however, were wide and of great length.  The principal street, conducting
from the great southern causeway, penetrated in a straight line the whole
length of the city, and afforded a noble vista, in which the long lines of
low stone edifices were broken occasionally by intervening gardens, rising,
on terraces and displaying all the pomp of Aztec horticulture.

[Footnote 2: Ante, p. 10.]

[Footnote 3: Martyr gives a particular account of these dwellings, which shows
that even the poorer classes were comfortably lodged.  "Populares vero domus
cingulo virili tenus lapidese sunt et ipsae, ob lacunae incrementum per fluxum
aut fluviorum in ea labentium alluvies.  Super fundamentis illis magnis,
lateribus tum coctis, tum aestivo sole siccatis, immixtis trabibus reliquam
molem construunt; uno sunt commonunes domus contentae tabulato.  In solo parum
hospitantur propter humiditatem, tecta non tegulis sed bitumine quodam terreo
vestiunt; ad solem captandum commodior est ille modus, breviore tempore
consumi debere credendum est." De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 10.]

     The great streets, which were coated with a hard cement, were intersected
by numerous canals.  Some of these were flanked by a solid way, which served
as a footwalk for passengers, and as a landing-place where boats might
discharge their cargoes.  Small buildings were erected at intervals, as
stations for the revenue officers who collected the duties on different
articles of merchandise.  The canals were traversed by numerous bridges, many
of which could be raised, affording the means of cutting off communication
between different parts of the city. ^1

[Footnote 1: Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 8. - Rel. Seg.
de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p. 108. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33,
cap. 10, 11. - Rel. d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.]

     From the accounts of the ancient capital, one is reminded of those
aquatic cities in the Old World, the positions of which have been selected
from similar motives of economy and defence; above all, of Venice, ^2 - if it
be not rash to compare the rude architecture of the American Indian with the
marble palaces and temples - alas, how shorn of their splendour! - which
crowned the once proud mistress of the Adriatic. ^3 The example of the
metropolis was soon followed by the other towns in the vicinity.  Instead of
resting their foundations on terra firma, they were seen advancing far into
the lake, the shallow waters of which in some parts do not exceed four feet in
depth. ^4 Thus an easy means of intercommunication was opened, and the surface
of this inland "sea," as Cortes styles it, was darkened by thousands of canoes
^5 - an Indian term - industriously engaged in the traffic between these
little communities.  How gay and picturesque must have been the aspect of the
lake in those days, with its shining cities, and flowering islets rocking, as
it were, at anchor on the fair bosom of its waters!

[Footnote 2: Martyr was struck with the resemblance. "Uti de illustrissima
civitate Venetiarum legitur, ad tumulum in ea sinus Adriatici parte visum,
fuisse constructam." Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5, cap. 10.]

[Footnote 3: May we not apply, without much violence, to the Aztec capital,
Giovanni della Casa's spirited sonnet, contrasting the origin of Venice with
its meridian glory?

     "Questi Palazzi e queste logge or colte
     D'ostro, di marmo e di figure elette,
     Fur poche e basse case insieme accolte
     Deserti lidi e povere Isolette.
     Ma genti ardite d'ogni vizio sciolte
     Premeano il mar con picciole barchette,
     Che qui non per domar provincie molte,
     Ma fuggir servitus' eran ristrette
     Non era ambizion ne' petti loro;
     Ma 'l mentire abborrian piu che la morte,
     Ne vi regnava ingorda fame d' oro.
     Se 'l Ciel v ha dato piu beata sorte,
     Non sien quelle virtu che tanto onoro,
     Dalle nuove ricchezze oppresse emorte."]

[Footnote 4: " Le lac de Tezcuco n'a generalement que trois a cing metres de
profondeur.  Dans quelques endroits le fond se trouve meme deja a moins d'un
metre."  Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 49.]

[Footnote 5: "Y cada dia entran gran multitud de Indios cargados de
bastimentos y tributos, asi por tierra como por agua, en acales o barcas,
que en lenqua de las Islas Ilaman Canoas."  Toribio, Hist. de los Indios,
MS., Parte 3, cap. 6.]

     The population of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Conquest is variously
stated.  No contemporary writer estimates it at less than sixty thousand
houses, which, by the ordinary rules of reckoning, would give three hundred
thousand souls. ^6  If a dwelling often contained, as is asserted, several
families, it would swell the amount considerably higher. ^7  Nothing is more
uncertain than estimates of numbers among barbarous communities, who
necessarily live in a more confused and promiscuous manner than civilized,
and among whom no regular system is adopted for ascertaining the population.
The concurrent testimony of the Conquerors; the extent of the city, which was
said to be nearly three leagues in circumference; ^1 the immense size of its
great market-place; the long lines of edifices, vestiges of whose ruins may
still be found in the suburbs, miles from the modern city; ^2 the fame of the
metropolis throughout Anahuac, which, however, could boast many large and
populous places; lastly, the economical husbandry and the ingenious
contrivances to extract aliment from the most unpromising sources, ^3 - all
attest a numerous population, far beyond that of the present capital. ^4

[Footnote 6: "Esta la cibdad de Mejico o Teneztutan, que sera de sesenta mil
vecinos."  (Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.)"  Tenustitanam ipsam inquiunt
sexaginta circiter esse millium domorum."  (Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 5,
cap. 3.)  "Era Mejico, quando Cortes entro, pueblo de sesenta mil casas."
(Gomara, Cronica, cap. 78.)  Toribio says, vaquely, "Los moradores y gente
era innumerable." (Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 8.)  The Italian
translation of the "Anonymous Conqueror," who survives only in translation,
says, indeed, "meglio di sessanta mila habitatori" (Rel. d'un gentil' huomo,
ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309); owing, probably, to a blunder in rendering
the word vecinos, the ordinary term in Spanish statistics, which, signifying
householders, corresponds with the Italian fuochi.  See, also, Clavigero.
(Stor. del Messico, tom. iii. p. 86, nota.)  Robertson rests exclusively on
this Italian translation for his estimate.  (History of America, vol. ii. p.
281.)  He cites, indeed, two other authorities in the same connection; Cortes,
who says nothing of the population, and Herrera, who confirms the popular
statement of "sesenta mil casas."  (Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 13.)
The fact is of some importance.]

[Footnote 7: "In the smallest houses, with few exceptions, two, four, and
even six families resided together.  Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7,
cap. 13.]

[Footnote 1: Rel. d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.]

[Footnote 2: "C'est sur le chemin qui mene a Tanepantla et aux Ahuahuetes que
l'on peut marcher plus d'une heure entre les ruines de l'ancienne ville. On y
reconnalt, ainsi que sur la route de Tacuba et d'Iztapalapan, combien Mexico,
rebati par Cortez, est plus petit que l'etait Tenochtitlan sous le dernier
des Montezuma.  L'enorme grandeur du marche de Tlatelolco, dont on reconnait
encore les limites, prouve combien la population de l'ancienne ville doit
avoir ete considerable."  (Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 43.]

[Footnote 3: A common food with the lower classes was a glutinous scum found
in the lakes, which they made into a sort of cake, having a savour not unlike
cheese.  (Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 92.) - (This "scum"
consists in fact of the eggs of aquatic insects, with which cakes are made, in
the same manner as with the spawn of fishes.) Conquista de Mejico (trad. de
Vega), tom. i. p. 366.

     Note: Little can be inferred, in regard to the difference of population,
from the use of the ahuahutle, as these cakes are called, since it is still a
favourite article of food at Tezcuco, where the eggs are found in great
abundance, and sold in the market both in the prepared state and in lumps as
collected at the edge of the lake." The flies which produce these eggs are
called by the Mexicans axayacatl, or water-face, - Corixa femorata, and
Notonecta unifasciata, according to MM. Meneville and Virlet d'Aoust." Tylor,
Anahuac, p. 156. - Ed.]

[Footnote 4: One is confirmed in this inference by comparing the two maps at
the end of the first edition of Bullock's "Mexico;" one of the modern city,
the other of the ancient, taken from Boturini's museum, and showing its
regular arrangement of streets and canals; as regular, indeed, as the
squares on a chessboard. ^~

[Footnote ~: [The doubts so often excited by the descriptions of ancient
Mexico in the accounts of the Spanish discoverers, like the similar
incredulity formerly entertained in regard to the narrations of Herodotus,
are dispelled by a critical investigation in conjunction with the results of
modern explorations. Among recent travellers, Mr. Edward B. Tylor, whose
learning and acumen have been displayed in various ethnological studies, is
entitled to especial confidence.  In company with Mr. Christy, the well-known
collector, he examined the ploughed fields in the neighbourhood of Mexico,
making repeated trials whether it was possible to stand in any spot where no
relic of the former population was within reach.  "But this," he says, "we
could not do.  Everywhere the ground was full of unglazed pottery and
obsidian."  "We noticed by the sides of the road, and where ditches had been
cut, numbers of old Mexican stone floors covered with stucco.  The earth has
accumulated above them to the depth of two or three feet, so that their
position is like that of the Roman pavements so often found in Europe; and we
may guess, from what we saw exposed, how great must be the number of such
remains still hidden, and how vast a population must once have inhabited this
plain, now almost deserted."  When we left England," he adds, "we both
doubted the accounts of the historians of the Conquest, believing that they
had exaggerated the numbers of the population, and the size of the cities,
from a natural desire to make the most of their victories, and to write as
wonderful a history as they could, as historians are prone to do.  But our
examination of Mexican remains soon induced us to withdraw this accusation,
and even made us inclined to blame the chroniclers for having had no eyes for
the wonderful things that surrounded them.  I do not mean by this that we
felt inclined to swallow the monstrous exaggerations of Solis and Gomara and
other Spanish chroniclers, who seemed to think that it was as easy to say a
thousand as a hundred, and that it sounded much better.  But when this class
of writers are set aside, and the more valuable authorities severely
criticised, it does not seem to us that the history thus extracted from these
sources is much less reliable than European history of the same period.
There is, perhaps, no better way of expressing this opinion than to say that
what we saw of Mexico tended generally to confirm Prescott's History of the
Conquest, and but seldom to make his statements appear to us improbable."
Anahuac. p. 147. - Ed.]

     A careful police provided for the health and cleanliness of the city.  A
thousand persons are said to have been daily employed in watering and
sweeping the streets, ^5 so that a man - to borrow the language of an old
Spaniard - "could walk through them with as little danger of soiling his feet
as his hands." ^6  The water, in a city washed on all sides by the salt
floods, was extremely brackish. A liberal supply of the pure element,
however, was brought from Chapoltepec, "the grasshopper's hill," less than a
league distant.  It was brought through an earthen pipe, along a dike
constructed for the purpose.  That there might be no failure in so essential
an article when repairs were going on, a double course of pipes was laid.  In
this way a column of water of the size of a man's body was conducted into the
heart of the capital, where it fed the fountains and reservoirs of the
principal mansions.  Openings were made in the aqueduct as it crossed the
bridges, and thus a supply was furnished to the canoes below, by means of
which it was transported to all parts of the city. ^1

[Footnote 5: Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 274.]

[Footnote 6: "Era tan barrido y el suelo tan asentado y liso, que aunque la
planta del pie fuera tan delicada como la de la mano no recibiera el pie
detrimento ninguno en andar descalzo."  Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS.,
Parte 3, cap. 7.]

[Footnote 1: Rel. Seg. de. Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p. 108 - Carta del Lic.
Zuazo, MS. - Rel. d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.]

     While Montezuma encouraged a taste for architectural magnificence in his
nobles, he contributed his own share towards the embellishment of the city.
It was in his reign that the famous calendar stone, weighing, probably, in
its primitive state, nearly fifty tons, was transported from its native
quarry, many leagues distant, to the capital, where it still forms one of the
most curious monuments of Aztec science.  Indeed, when we reflect on the
difficulty of hewing such a stupendous mass from its hard basaltic bed
without the aid of iron tools, and that of transporting it such a distance
across land and water without the help of animals, we may well feel
admiration at the mechanical ingenuity and enterprise of the people who
accomplished it. ^2

[Footnote 2: These immense masses, according to Martyr, who gathered his
information from eyewitnesses, were transported by means of long files of men,
who dragged them with ropes over huge wooden rollers.  (De Orbe Novo, dec.
5, cap. 10.)  It was the manner in which the Egyptians removed their
enormous blocks of granite, as appears from numerous reliefs sculptured on
their buildings.]

     Not content with the spacious residence of his father, Montezuma erected
another on a yet more magnificent scale.  It occupied, as before mentioned,
the ground partly covered by the private dwellings on one side of the plaza
mayor of the modern city.  This building, or, as it might more correctly be
styled, pile of buildings, spread over an extent of ground so vast that, as
one of the Conquerors assures us, its terraced roof might have afforded ample
room for thirty knights to run their courses in a regular tourney. ^3  I have
already noticed its interior decorations, its fanciful draperies, its roofs
inlaid with cedar and other odoriferous woods, held together without a nail,
and, probably, without a knowledge of the arch, ^4 its numerous and spacious
apartments, which Cortes, with enthusiastic hyperbole, does not hesitate to
declare superior to anything of the kind in Spain. ^5

[Footnote 3: Rel. d'un gentil' huomo ap. Ramusio tom. iii. fol. 309.]

[Footnote 4: "Ricos edificios," says the Licentiate Zuazo, speaking of the
buildings in Anahuac generally, "ecepto que no se halla alguno con boveda."
(Carta, MS.)  The writer made large and careful observation, the year after
the Conquest.  His assertion, if it be received, will settle a question much
mooted among antiquaries.]

[Footnote 5: "His residence within the city was so marvellous for its beauty
and vastness that it seems to me almost impossible to describe it.  I shall
therefore say no more of it than that there is nothing like it in Spain."
Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 111.]

     Adjoining the principal edifice were others, devoted to various objects.
One was an armoury, filled with the weapons and military dresses worn by the
Aztecs, all kept in the most perfect order, ready for instant use.  The
emperor was himself very expert in the management of the maquahuitl, or
Indian sword, and took great delight in witnessing athletic exercises and the
mimic representation of war by his young nobility.  Another building was used
as a granary, and others as warehouses for the different articles of food and
apparel contributed by the districts charged with the maintenance of the
royal household.

     There were, also, edifices appropriated to objects of quite another
kind.  One of these was an immense aviary, in which birds of splendid plumage
were assembled from all parts of the empire.  Here was the scarlet cardinal,
the golden pheasant, the endless parrot tribe with their rainbow hues (the
royal green predominant), and that miniature miracle of nature, the
humming-bird, which delights to revel among the honeysuckle bowers of
Mexico. ^1  Three hundred attendants had charge of this aviary, who made
themselves acquainted with the appropriate food of its inmates, oftentimes
procured at great cost, and in the moulting season were careful to collect
the beautiful plumage, which, with its many-coloured tints, furnished the
materials for the Aztec painter.

[Footnote 1: Herrera's account of these feathered insects, if one may so style
them, shows the fanciful errors into which even men of science were led in
regard to the new tribes of animals discovered in America: "There are some
birds in the country of the size of butterflies, with long beaks, brilliant
plumage, much esteemed for the curious works made of them.  Like the bees,
they live on flowers, and the dew which settles on them; and when the rainy
season is over, and the dry weather sets in, they fasten themselves to the
trees by their beaks and soon die. But in the following year, when the new
rains come, they come to life again."  Hist. general, dec. 2. lib. 10, cap.
21.]

     A separate building was reserved for the fierce birds of prey; the
voracious vulture tribes and eagles of enormous size, whose home was in the
snowy solitudes of the Andes.  No less than five hundred turkeys, the
cheapest meat in Mexico, were allowed for the daily consumption of these
tyrants of the feathered race.

     Adjoining this aviary was a menagerie of wild animals, gathered from the
mountain forests, and even from the remote swamps of the tierra caliente.
The resemblance of the different species to those in the Old World, with
which no one of them, however, was identical, led to a perpetual confusion in
the nomenclature of the Spaniards, as it has since done in that of
better-instructed naturalists.  The collection was still further swelled by a
great number of reptiles and serpents remarkable for their size and venomous
qualities, among which the Spaniards beheld the fiery little animal "with the
castanets in his tail," the terror of the American wilderness. ^2  The
serpents were confined in long cages lined with down or feathers, or in
troughs of mud and water.  The beasts and birds of prey were provided with
apartments large enough to allow of their moving about, and secured by a
strong lattice-work, through which light and air were freely admitted.  The
whole was placed under the charge of numerous keepers, who acquainted
themselves with the habits of their prisoners and provided for their comfort
and cleanliness.  With what deep interest would the enlightened naturalist of
that day - an Oviedo, or a Martyr, for example - have surveyed this
magnificent collection, in which the various tribes which roamed over the
Western wilderness, the unknown races of an unknown world, were brought into
one view!  How would they have delighted to study the peculiarities of these
new species, compared with those of their own hemisphere, and thus have risen
to some comprehension of the general laws by which Nature acts in all her
works!  The rude followers of Cortes did not trouble themselves with such
refined speculations.  They gazed on the spectacle with a vague curiosity not
unmixed with awe; and, as they listened to the wild cries of the ferocious
animals and the hissings of the serpents, they almost fancied themselves in
the infernal regions. ^1

[Footnote 2: "Pues mas tenian," says the honest Captain Diaz, "en aquella
maldita casa muchas Viboras, y Culebras emponconadas, que traen en las colas
vnos que suenan como cascabeles; estas son las peores viboras de todas."
Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91]

[Footnote 1: "Digamos aora," exclaims Captain Diaz, "las cosas infernales que
hazian, quando bramauan los Tigres y Leones, y aullauan los  Adiues y Zorros,
y silbauan las Sierpes, era grima oirlo, y parecia infierno."  Hist. de la
Conquista, cap. 91.]

     I must not omit to notice a strange collection of human monsters,
dwarfs, and other unfortunate persons in whose organization Nature had
capriciously deviated from her regular laws.  Such hideous anomalies were
regarded by the Aztecs as a suitable appendage of state.  It is even said
they were in some cases the result of artificial means, employed by unnatural
parents desirous to secure a provision for their offspring by thus qualifying
them for a place in the royal museum! ^2

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ubi supra. - Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, pp.
111-113. - Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS. - Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS.,
Parte 3, cap. 7. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 11, 46.]

     Extensive gardens were spread out around these buildings, filled with
fragrant shrubs and flowers, and especially with medicinal plants. ^3  No
country has afforded more numerous species of these last than New Spain; and
their virtues were perfectly understood by the Aztecs, with whom medical
botany may be said to have been studied as a science.  Amidst this labyrinth
of sweet-scented groves and shrubberies, fountains of pure water might be
seen throwing up their sparkling jets and scattering refreshing dews over the
blossoms.  Ten large tanks, well stocked with fish, afforded a retreat on
their margins to various tribes of water-fowl, whose habits were so carefully
consulted that some of these ponds were of salt water, as that which they
most loved to frequent.  A tessellated pavement of marble enclosed the ample
basins, which were overhung by light and fanciful pavilions, that admitted
the perfumed breezes of the gardens, and offered a grateful shelter to the
monarch and his mistresses in the sultry heats of summer. ^4

[Footnote 3: Montezuma, according to Gomara, would allow no fruit-trees,
considering them as unsuitable to pleasure-grounds.  (Cronica, cap. 75.)
Toribio says, to the same effect, "Los Indios Senores no procuran arboles de
fruta, porque se la traen sus vasallos, sino arboles de floresta, de donde
cojan rosas, y adonde se crian aves, asi para gozar del canto, como para las
tirar con Cerbatana, de la cual son grandes tiradores."  Hist. de los Indios,
MS., Parte 3, cap. 6.]

[Footnote 4: Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 6. - Rel. Seg.
de Cortes, ubi supra. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 11.]

     But the most luxurious residence of the Aztec monarch, at that season,
was the royal hill of Chapoltepec, - a spot consecrated, moreover, by the
ashes of his ancestors.  It stood in a westerly direction from the capital,
and its base was, in his day, washed by the waters of the Tezcuco.  On its
lofty crest of porphyritic rock there now stands the magnificent, though
desolate, castle erected by the young viceroy Galvez at the close of the
seventeenth century. ^1 The view from its windows is one of the finest in the
environs of Mexico.  The landscape is not disfigured here, as in many other
quarters, by the white and barren patches, so offensive to the sight; but the
eye wanders over an unbroken expanse of meadows and cultivated fields, waving
with rich harvests of European grain.  Montezuma's gardens stretched for
miles around the base of the hill.  Two statues of that monarch and his
father, cut in bas-relief in the porphyry, were spared till the middle of the
last century; ^2 and the grounds are still shaded by gigantic cypresses, more
than fifty feet in circumference, which were centuries old at the time of the
Conquest. ^3  The place is now  a tangled wilderness of wild shrubs, where the
myrtle mingles its dark, glossy leaves with the red berries and delicate
foliage of the pepper-tree.  Surely there is no spot better suited to awaken
meditation on the past; none where the traveller, as he sits under those
stately cypresses grey with the moss of ages, can so fitly ponder on the sad
destinies of the Indian races and the monarch who once held his courtly
revels under the shadow of their branches.

[Footnote 1: It is used at the present day for a military school.  Conquista
de Mejico (trad. de Vega), tom. i. p. 370.]

[Footnote 2: Gomara, a competent critic, who saw them just before their
destruction, praises their execution.  Gama, Descripcion, Parte 2, pp. 81-83.
Also, ante, p. 68.]

[Footnote 3: Yet the whole of this beautiful grove was not spared.  The axes
of the Conquerors levelled such of the trees as grew round the fountain of
Chapoltepec and dropped their decayed leaves into its waters.  The order of
the municipality, dated February 28, 1527, is quoted by Alaman, Disertaciones
historicas, tom. ii. p. 290.]

     The domestic establishment of Montezuma was on the same scale of
barbaric splendour as everything else about him.  He could boast as many
wives as are found  in the harem of an Eastern sultan. ^4 They were lodged in
their own apartments, and provided with every accommodation, according to
their ideas, for personal comfort and cleanliness.  They passed their hours
in the usual feminine employments of weaving and embroidery, especially in
the graceful feather-work, for which such rich materials were furnished by
the royal aviaries.  They conducted themselves with strict decorum, under the
supervision of certain aged females, who acted in the respectable capacity of
duennas, in the same manner as in the religious houses attached to the
teocallis.  The palace was supplied with numerous baths, and Montezuma set
the example, in his own person, of frequent ablutions.  He bathed at least
once, and changed his dress four times, it is said, every day. ^5  He never
put on the same apparel a second time, but gave it away to his attendants.
Queen Elizabeth, with a similar taste for costume, showed a less princely
spirit in hoarding her discarded suits.  Her wardrobe was, probably, somewhat
more costly than that of the Indian emperor.

[Footnote 4: No less than one thousand, if we believe Gomara; who adds the
edifying intelligence, "que huvo vez, que tuvo ciento i cincuenta prenadas
a un tiempo!"]

[Footnote 5: "Vestiase todos los dias quatro maneras de vestiduras todas
nuevas, y nunca mas se las vestia otra vez."  Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap.
Lorenzana, p. 114.]

     Besides his numerous female retinue, the halls and antechambers were
filled with nobles in constant attendance on his person, who served also as a
sort of body-guard.  It had been usual for plebeians of merit to fill certain
offices in the palace.  But the haughty Montezuma refused to be waited upon
by any but men of noble birth.  They were not unfrequently the sons of the
great chiefs, and remained as hostages in the absence of their fathers; thus
serving the double purpose of security and state. ^1

[Footnote 1: Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91. - Gomara, Cronica,
cap. 67, 71, 76. - Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 113, 114. -
Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7. - "A la puerta de la sala
estaba vn patio mui grande en que habia cien aposentos de 25 6 30 pies de
largo cada vno sobre si en torno de dicho patio, e alli estaban los Senores
principales aposentados como guardas del palacio ordinarias, y estos tales
aposentos se llaman galpones, los quales a la contina ocupan mas de 600
hombres, que jamas se quitaban de alli, e cada vno de aquellos tenian mas de
30 servidores de manera que a lo menos nunca faltaban 3000 hombres de guerra
en esta guarda cotediana del palacio."  (Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib.
33, cap. 46.)  A very curious and full account of Montezuma's household is
given by this author, as he gathered it from the Spaniards who saw it in its
splendour.  As Oviedo's history still remains in manuscript, I have
transferred the chapter in the original Castilian to Appendix, Part 2, No.
10.]

     His meals the emperor took alone.  The well-matted floor of a large
saloon was covered with hundreds of dishes. ^2  Sometimes Montezuma himself,
but more frequently his steward, indicated those which he preferred, and
which were kept hot by means of chafing-dishes. ^3  The royal bill of fare
comprehended, besides domestic animals, game from the distant forests, and
fish which, the day before, was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico!  They were
dressed in manifold ways, for the Aztec artistes, as we have already had
occasion to notice, had penetrated deep into the mysteries of culinary
science. ^4

[Footnote 2: Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91. - Rel. Seg. de
Cortes, ubi supra.]

[Footnote 3: "Y porque la Tierra es fria trahian debaxo de cada plato y
escudilla de manjar un braserico con brasa, porque no se enfriasse."  Rel.
Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p. 113]

[Footnote 4: Bernal Diaz has given us a few items of the royal carte.  The
first cover is rather a startling one, being a fricassee or stew of little
children! "carnes de muchachos de poca edad."  He admits, however, that this
is somewhat apocryphal.  Ibid., ubi supra.]

     The meats were served by the attendant nobles, who the resigned the
office of waiting on the monarch to maidens selected for their personal grace
and beauty.  A screen of richly gilt and carved wood drawn around him, so as
to conceal him from vulgar eyes during the repast.  He was seated on a
cushion, and the dinner was served on a low table covered with a delicate
cotton cloth.  The dishes were of the finest ware of Cholula.  He had a
service of gold, which was reserved for religious celebrations.  Indeed it
would scarcely have comported with even his princely revenues to have used it
on ordinary occasions, when his table-equipage was not allowed to appear a
second time, but was given away to his attendant.  The saloon was lighted by
torches made of a resinous wood, which sent forth a sweet odour and,
probably, not a little smoke, as they burned.  At his meal, he was attended
by five or six of his ancient counsellors, who stood at a respectful
distance, answering his questions, and occasionally rejoiced by some of the
viands with which he complimented them from his table.

     This course of solid dishes was succeeded by another of sweetmeats and
pastry, for which the Aztec cooks, provided with the important requisites of
maize-flour, eggs, and the rich sugar of the aloe, were famous.  Two girls
were occupied at the farther end of the apartment, during dinner, in
preparing fine rolls and wafers, with which they garnished the board from
time to time.  The emperor took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a
potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and other spices, and so
prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which
gradually dissolved in the mouth.  This beverage, if so it could be called,
was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the same metal or of tortoise
shell finely wrought.  The emperor was exceedingly fond of it, to judge from
the quantity - no less than fifty jars or pitchers - prepared for his own
daily consumption. ^1  Two thousand more were allowed for that of his
household. ^2

[Footnote 1: "Lo que yo vi,"  says Diaz, speaking from his own observation,
"que traian sobre cincuenta jarros grandes hechos de buen cacao con su
espuma, y de lo que bebia."  Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ubi supra. - Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 113,
114. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 11-46. - Gomara,
Cronica, cap. 67.]

     The general arrangement of the meal seems to have been not very unlike
that of Europeans.  But no prince in Europe could boast a dessert which could
compare with that of the Aztec emperor.  For it was gathered fresh from the
most opposite climes; and his board displayed the products of his own
temperate region, and the luscious fruits of the tropics, plucked the day
previous, from the green groves of the tierra caliente, and transmitted with
the speed of steam, by means of couriers, to the capital.  It was as if some
kind fairy should crown our banquets with the spicy products that but
yesterday were growing in a sunny isle of the far-off Indian seas! ^3

[Footnote 3: This description, as Senor Alaman observes, seems to have a
tincture of romance, since many of the fruits now produced in such abundance
in Mexico were unknown there previous to the Conquest.  Conquista de Mejico
(trad. de Vega), tom. i. p. 373. - Ed.]

     After the emperor's appetite was appeased, water was handed to him by
the female attendants in a silver basin, in the same manner as had been done
before commencing  his meal; for the Aztecs were as constant in their
ablutions, at these times, as any nation of the East.  Pipes were then
brought, made of a varnished and richly-gilt wood, from which he inhaled,
sometimes through the nose, at others through the mouth, the fumes of an
intoxicating weed, "called tobacco," ^4 mingled with liquid amber.  While this
soothing process of fumigation was going on, the emperor enjoyed the
exhibitions of his mountebanks and jugglers, of whom a regular corps was
attached to the palace.  No people, not even those of China or Hindostan,
surpassed the Aztecs in feats of agility and legerdemain. ^5

[Footnote 4: "Tambien le ponian en la mesa tres canutos muy pintados, y
dorados, y dentro traian liquid-ambar, rebuelto con vnas yervas que se dize
tabaco."  Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91.]

[Footnote 5: The feats of jugglers and tumblers were a favourite diversion
with the Grand Khan of China, as Sir John Maundeville informs us.  (Voiage
and Travaille, chap. 22.)  The Aztec mountebanks had such repute, that Cortes
sent two of them to Rome to amuse his Holiness Clement VII.  Clavigero, Stor.
del Messico, tom. ii. p. 186.]

     Sometimes he amused himself with his jester; for the Indian monarch had
his jesters, as well as his more refined brethren of Europe, at that day.
Indeed, he used to say that more instruction was to be gathered from them
than from wiser men, for they dared to tell the truth.  At other times he
witnessed the graceful dances of his women, or took delight in listening to
music, - if the rude minstrelsy of the Mexicans deserve that name,
- accompanied by a chant, in slow and solemn cadence, celebrating the
heroic deeds of great Aztec warriors, or of his own princely line.

     When he had sufficiently refreshed his spirits with these diversions, he
composed himself to sleep, for in his siesta he was as regular as a Spaniard.
On awaking, he gave audience to ambassadors from foreign states or his own
tributary cities, or to such caciques as had suits to prefer to him.  They
were introduced by the young nobles in attendance, and, whatever might be
their rank, unless of the blood royal, they were obliged to submit to the
humiliation of shrouding their rich dresses under the coarse mantle of
nequen, and entering barefooted, with downcast eyes, into the presence.  The
emperor addressed few and brief remarks to the suitors, answering them
generally by his secretaries; and the parties retired with the same
reverential obeisance, taking care to keep their faces turned towards the
monarch.  Well might Cortes exclaim that no court, whether of the Grand
Seignior or any other infidel, ever displayed so pompous and elaborate a
ceremonial! ^1

[Footnote 1: "Ninguno de los Soldanes, ni otro ningun senor
infiel, de los que hasta agora se tiene noticia, no creo, que tantas, ni
tales ceremonias en servicio tengan."  Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, p.
115.]

     Besides the crowd of retainers already noticed, the royal household was
not complete without a host of artisans constantly employed in the erection
or repair of buildings, besides a great number of jewellers and persons
skilled in working metals, who found abundant demand for their trinkets among
the dark-eyed beauties of the harem.  The imperial mummers and jugglers were
also very numerous, and the dancers belonging to the palace occupied a
particular district of the city, appropriated exclusively to them.

     The maintenance of this little host, amounting to some thousands of
individuals, involved a heavy expenditure, requiring accounts of a
complicated and, to a simple people, it might well be, embarrassing nature.
Everything, however, was conducted with perfect order; and all the various
receipts and disbursements were set down in the picture-writing of the
country.  The arithmetical characters were of a more refined and conventional
sort than those for narrative purposes; and a separate apartment was filled
with hieroglyphical ledgers, exhibiting a complete view of the economy of the
palace.  The care of all this was intrusted to a treasurer, who acted as a
sort of major-domo in the household, having a general superintendence over
all its concerns.  This responsible office, on the arrival of the Spaniards,
was in the hands of a trusty cacique named Tapia. ^2

[Footnote 2: Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91. - Carta del Lic.
Zuazo, MS. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., ubi supra. - Toribio, Hist. de
los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7. - Rel. Seg. de Cortes, ap. Lorenzana, pp.
110-115. - Rel. d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 306.

     The name, which is Spanish, not Aztec, was that given to him by the
Conquerors, perhaps with some reference to one of their own number, Andres de
Tapia - Ed.]

     Such is the picture of Montezuma's domestic establishment and way of
living, as delineated by the Conquerors and their immediate followers, who
had the best means of information; ^1 too highly coloured, it may be, by the
proneness to exaggerate, which was natural to those who first witnessed a
spectacle so striking to the imagination, so new and unexpected.  I have
thought it best to present the full details, trivial though they may seem to
the reader, as affording a curious picture of manners so superior in point of
refinement to those of the other aboriginal tribes on the North American
continent.  Nor are they, in fact, so trivial, when we reflect that in these
details of private life we possess a surer measure of civilization than in
those of a public nature.

[Footnote 1: If the historian will descend but a generation later for his
authorities, he may find materials for as good a chapter as any in Sir John
Maundeville or the Arabian Nights.]

     In surveying them we are strongly reminded of the civilization of the
East; not of that higher, intellectual kind which belonged to the more
polished Arabs and the Persians, but that semi-civilization which has
distinguished, for example, the Tartar races, among whom art, and even
science, have made, indeed, some progress in their adaptation to material
wants and sensual gratification, but little in reference to the higher and
more ennobling interests of humanity.  It is characteristic of such a people
to find a puerile pleasure in a dazzling and ostentatious pageantry; to
mistake show for substance, vain pomp for power; to hedge round the throne
itself with a barren and burdensome ceremonial, the counterfeit of real
majesty.

     Even this, however, was an advance in refinement, compared with the rude
manners of the earlier Aztecs.  The change may, doubtless, be referred in some
degree to the personal influence of Montezuma.  In his younger days he had
tempered the fierce habits of the soldier with the milder profession of
religion.  In later life he had withdrawn himself still more from the
brutalizing occupations of war, and his manners acquired a refinement,
tinctured, it may be added, with an effeminacy, unknown to his martial
predecessors.

     The condition of the empire, too, under his reign, was favourable to
this change.  The dismemberment of the Tezcucan kingdom on the death of the
great Nezahualpilli had left the Aztec monarchy without a rival; and it soon
spread its colossal arms over the farthest limits of Anahuac.  The aspiring
mind of Montezuma rose with the acquisition of wealth and power; and he
displayed the consciousness of new importance by the assumption of
unprecedented state.  He affected a reserve unknown to his predecessors,
withdrew his person from the vulgar eye, and fenced himself round with an
elaborate and courtly etiquette.  When he went abroad, it was in state, on
some public occasion, usually to the great temple, to take part in the
religious services; and as he passed along he exacted from his people, as we
have seen, the homage of an adulation worthy of an Oriental despot. ^2  His
haughty demeanour touched the pride of his more potent vassals, particularly
those who, at a distance, felt themselves nearly independent of his
authority.  His exactions, demanded by the profuse expenditure of his palace,
scattered broadcast the seeds of discontent; and, while the empire seemed
towering in its most palmy and prosperous state, the canker had eaten deepest
into its heart.

[Footnote 2: "Referre in tanto reg tionem vestis, et desideratas humi
jacentium adulationes."  (Livy, Hist., lib. 9, cap. 18.)  The remarks of the
Roman historian in reference to Alexander, after he was infected by the
manners of Persia, fit the Aztec emperor.]