idols, purifying the chapels, and putting up the images. I expressly forbad their offering any human sacrifices, telling them

to the city, and fortified and widened the causeway. He was afterwards continually engaged in wars, in which he subjugated many provinces, and extended the limits of his empire to Honduras and Nicaragua. MontecuhIt was in the zuma was feared and respected in all the countries around. eighteenth year of his reign when he first received information of the arrival of Cortez, and his Spaniards, on the coast. He received that hero with affability and kindness; and died of a wound from a stone, thrown by the Mexicans at the Spaniards, whilst, from a terrace, he was endeavouring to persuade the former to lay down their arms.

Cuitlahuatzin was, on his death, elected during the war between the Mexicans and Spaniards, which was courageously maintained. His reign was of short duration. When the city of Mexico was reduced to the greatest extremity, he attempted to escape by the lake, with a numerous fleet of canoes, but was taken prisoner, and lost his kingdom, and shortly after his life, having been hung by Cortez, on his journey to Honduras, in consequence of his having plotted an insurrection in the empire, which had acknowledged for its sovereign the emperor Charles the Fifth, and sworn obedience to him. Ducimaris Geografico Historico d'America-por Don Antonio de Alcedo.

The empire of Mexico was monarchical, but not hereditary. In its earliest period the grandees, or the chief meu of the state, assembled on the death of the emperor, and elected the person who, in their opinion, was the most deserving of the throne, or who had been most favoured by intrigue, cabals, or superstition. They had, indeed, some wise laws, relative to the election, by the observance of which it might have been conducted with justice and impartiality; but in addition to the passions, always such powerful agents in elections, the influence of religion rendered all these regulations unavailing, by pretended visions, to which no one dared to make opposition. The high priest spoke, announced the will of his god; and there, as every where else in the world, they dreaded his wrath.

Six electors then appointed the emperor. The princes of Tezcuco, or Acolhuacan, and of Tacuba, were always two of them; one of them was a prince of the blood royal. The election, however, always fell upon one of the family of Acamapitzin. It was in that family that the crown had been established, and it remained there until the destruction of the empire. Their political system was feudal. We are told by Herrera, that there were thirty families that held the first rank in the state, each of which had as many as one hundred thousand vassals. The second class contained more than three thousand families. The vassals were serfs, attached to the soil; and the proprietor, or master, exercised over them the right of life or death. This species of property was distinguished into allodial, hereditary, and eventual. The latter was attached to the offices of the empire, and enjoyed only as long as those offices were held.

The priests were charged with the education of the youth, and their testimony in favour of their pupils, determined whether their names should be inscribed on the list of nobles or plebeians. Personal merit alone formed the distinction of the nobility. It was by means of this truly estimable merit that they were raised above the vulgar; and the heraldic tribunal pronounced the quality of individuals, without having any regard to their ancestry. The more recent the nobility, the more was it held in consideration, as it was en

that not only the Deity held such in abhorrence, but that they were prohibited, under the severest penalties, by human laws, which ordered him who shed the blood of a fellow creature to be put to death. By this means these horrible sacrifices were so far put a stop to, that not one occurred during my stay in Mexico.

Their idols, in their proportions, exceed by far the ordinary size of man, and are composed of a mixture of pulse and grain,

tirely the reward of merit, and as no one could pride himself in saying my grandfather was a great man.

The punishment of death was decreed by several of their fundamental laws. To violate the principles of religion, offer offence to the person of the sovereign, to rob, and to murder, were crimes punishable with death. If any one was taken gathering fruit, or pulling up grain from the field of another, he became the slave of the owner of the soil.

This state was divided into many seignories. The sons of the great men were not permitted to leave the court, and the lords were every year obliged to come and pay homage to their sovereign.

Each province was subject to a tribute, excepting some noblemen, who, instead of it, were obliged to furnish a certain number of vassals for war. The tribute was paid in kind, and was fixed at a thirtieth of the crops, comprehending therein the personal labour and services required from individuals. The several governors sought to surpass each other in the presents which they made the emperor, in gold, silver, and jewels, and various other works. Lettere Americane.

*Here, says Diaz, in describing the great temple, were two altars, highly adorned, and over them gigantic figures, resembling very fat men. The one on the right was Huitzilopuchtli, their war god, with a great face, and terrible eyes; this figure was entirely covered with gold and jewels, and his body bound with golden serpents; in his right hand he held a bow, and in his left a bundle of arrows. The little idol which stood by him, represented his page, and borc a lance and target, richly ornamented with gold and jewels. The great idol had round his neck the figures of human heads and hearts, made of pure gold and silver, ornamented with precious stones of a blue colour. Before the idol was a pan of incense, with three hearts of human victims, which were then burning, mixed with copal. The whole of that apartment, both walls and floor, was stained with human blood in such quantity as to give a very offensive smell. On the left was another great figure, with a countenance like a bear, and great shining eyes, of the polished substance, whereof their mirrors are made. The body of this idol was also covered with jewels. These two deities, it was said, were brothers; the name of this last was Tezcalepuca, and he was the god of the infernal regions. He presided, according to their notions, over the souls of men. His body was covered with figures, representing little devils with tails of serpents; an offering lay before him of four human hearts. In the summit of the temple, and in a recess, the timber of which was highly ornamented, we saw a figure, half man, and the other half resembling an alligator, inlaid with jewels, and partly covered with a mantle.

In this place they had a drum of a most enormous size, the head of which was made of the skins of large serpents; this instrument, when struck, resounded with a noise that could be heard to the distance of two leagues, and so doleful, that it deserved to be named the music of the infernal regions. Bernal Diaz, pp. 146-147.

formed into a paste, with human blood. The breast of the victim is opened while living, and the heart taken out and offered to these gods, who are equal in number to their hopes and their fears.

*

Mexico contains a great number of very large and splendid houses, as the principal caciques, and great nobles of the empire live there during a part of the year; and the rich merchants and citizens are well accommodated, and have almost all of them pleasant gardens,† filled with all kinds of flowers. Fresh water is con

Clavigero assures us, that the Mexicans made statues of wood, of clay, and of stone, not only for idols, but to represent all the various attitudes of men and women, and even some that were of gigantic size. In these, accuracy of design was combined with delicacy of workmanship.

In Mexico was an idol, representing the god of merchants. It was placed in a temple, and seated on a heap of gold and silver, rare and costly feathers, and other articles of merchandize, of great value. It was in human form, but had a bird's head, with a red beak, furnished with teeth, and covered with warts; the tongue was protruded beyond it. On its head was a kind of mitre, terminating in a point. In its haud was a scithe, or sickle. Its legs were ornamented with various sorts of gold and silver jewels, expressive of the favours which it could grant. Lettere Americane.

*All the writers of the time of the conquest agree in representing the palaces of Mexico as very large. The author of the Relation says, "I several times entered the house of a great lord merely to view it, and when there I always fatigued myself with walking, yet I never succeeded in viewing it entirely."

The palaces of the great men and nobles were proportionably magnificent. The author of the account already mentioned says, "There was, and still is, in that city, a great number of good and handsome houses, so large, and furnished with so many rooms, apartments, and gardens, both above and below, that they are wonderful to behold." Clavigero says, that their principal houses were furnished with stoves for vapour baths, like those of the Greeks and Romans. Lettere Americane.

These were probably the floating gardens, called, by the Mexicans, chinampas, of which Humboldt gives the following interesting account: "The market of Mexico is richly supplied with eatables, particularly with roots and fruits of every sort. It is a most interesting spectacle, which may be enjoyed every morning at sun-rise, to see these provisions, and a great quantity of flowers, brought in by Indians in boats, descending the canals of Istacalco and Chalco. The greater part of these roots is cultivated on the chinampas, called by the Europeans floating gardens. There are two sorts of them, of which the one is moveable, and driven about by the winds, and the other fixed and attached to the shore. The first alone merit the denomination of floating gardens, but their number is daily diminishing. "The ingenious invention of chinampas, appears to go back to the end of the 14th century. It had its origin in the extraordinary situation of a people surrounded with enemies, and compelled to live in the midst of a lake, little abounding in fish, who were forced to fall upon every means of procuring subistence. It is even probable that nature herself suggested to the Az. tecs the first idea of floating gardens. On the marshy banks of the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, the agitated water, in the time of the great rises, carries away pieces of earth, covered with herbs, and bound together by

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veyed thither by means of two pipes, each two feet in circumference, which extend along one of the causeways leading to the city. This water is carried through the streets in canoes, and sold to the people.

The duties which are paid upon every thing brought into the city, are received by inspectors appointed for that purpose, at certain buildings answering to toll-houses. The public markets abound with workmen of every kind, who come there to be hired. The inhabitants of Mexico are better dressed than those of any other part of the empire; the circumstance of its being the resi dence of Montezuma, and his chief nobility having introduced some customs and modes of dress more elegant and becoming. Their manners in general, bear a great resemblance to those of Spain, and as nearly the same order and the same general regulations are observable, we are continually struck with the surprising police of a barbarous people, separated from all polished nations, and totally ignorant of the knowledge of the true God.

The task would be difficult to describe the particulars of the luxury and magnificence of Montezuma, and to give an accurate representation of his state and grandeur. As I have already observed, he possessed a perfect representation of every object in nature, formed either of gold, silver, precious stones, or teathers.

His territory, from the best information I have been able to obtain, was as large as that of Spain, the country for more than

roots. These, floating about for a long time; as they are driven by the wind, sometimes unite into small islands. A tribe of men, too weak to defend themselves on the continent, would take advantage of these portions of ground which accident put within their reach, and of which no enemy disputed the property. The oldest chinampas were merely bits of ground, joined together artificially, and dug and sown upon by the Aztecs.

"Simple lumps of earth, carried away from the banks, have given rise to the invention of chinampas; but the industry of the Aztec nation gradually carried this system of cultivation to perfection. The floating gardens, of which many were found by the Spaniards, and of which many still exist in the lake of Chalco, were rafts formed of reeds (totosa), rushes, roots, and branches of brush-wood. The Indians cover these light and well-connected materials with black mould, naturally impregnated with muriate of soda. The soil is gradually purified from this salt by washing it with the water of the lake; and the ground becomes so much the more fertile, as this lixiviation is annually repeated. The chinampas sometimes contain even the cottage of the Indian, who acts as guard for a group of floating gardens. They are towed, or pushed with long poles, when wished to be removed from one side of the banks to the other.

"In proportion as the fresh water lake has become more distant from the salt water lake, the moveable chinampas have become fixed. Each chinampa forms a parallelogram of 328 by 19 feet. On these chinampas are cultivated beans, small pease, potatoes, artichokes, and a great variety of other vegetables. The edges of these squares are generally ornamented with flowers, and sometimes even with a hedge of rose bushes." Humboldt. val. 2. p. 62-63.

two hundred leagues being under his government, excepting a few states with which he was at war. All the principal caciques were submissive to his orders, and their eldest sons, who attended on him, served as pledges for their fidelity. He likewise possessed fortified places in the several districts which were garrisoned by his troops. In each province he had his collectors of the revenue, and he perfectly understood the state of his finances, which were marked in characters,* and in very plain and intelligible figures. A tribute of personal service was also due him from each province, and this was rendered with the utmost punc

* A dispute happened to arise, says Count Carli, between two Mexican nobles relative to the boundaries of some land. The affair was brought before the tribunal of the Licentiate Zuazo. The papers of the process, according to Oviedo, were nothing but a painting, on which were marks, a kind of cypher, characters and figures, which represented the fact as well as it could have been detailed by one of our best writers.

The inhabitants of the city of Amatitlan, in the province of Guatimala, were the most skilful in making paper from the leaves of the palm, and pencils for writing. They gave to these leaves a square form, in order to fold them and make of them what we call a book. Acosta, Herrera, and Peter Martyr, speak of these volumes in which they entered historical facts, laws, customs, astronomical observations, &c.

There has but a single one of these monuments escaped. When I have examined these sheets, and the description contained in the margin, I have thought that I clearly perceived the meaning of all these characters, and have been extremely surprised at the manner in which those people so particularly described things. A conquest made by arms, was designed by a circle which contained another, and formed, as it were, the limb of a round scutcheon. In the middle of this circle were seven globes in three rows, two in the first, three in the second, and two in the third line. From the border of the circle issued, as it were, three points of ancient swords or sabres, the handles of which appeared on the other side, as if these weapons had been crossed in saltier beneath the disk of the circle. It was surmounted by a kind of cross.

A particular figure represented the city of Tlacotepec, another that of Tecozaunt, another that of Chalco, and another that of Tlacho. Lettere Americane.

Bernal Diaz says, that in some temples near to where Vera-Cruz was afterwards built, they found books of the paper of the country, folded in the manner of cloth of Castile.

M. de Humboldt, enumerates among the small remains of Mexican antiquities, the Aztec manuscripts, or hieroglyphical pictures, painted on agave paper, on stag-skins and cotton cloth. Vol. 2. p. 42, and in page 376, he says, that the paper on which the ancient Mexicans painted their hieroglyphical figures was made of the fibres of agave leaves, macerated in water, and disposed in layers like the fibres of the Egyptian cyperus and the mulberry of the South-Sea islands. I brought with me several fragments of Aztec manuscripts, written on mugney paper, of a thickness so different that some of them resemble pasteboard, while others are like Chinese paper.

Bernal Diaz says, that the accounts of Montezuma's rents were kept in books which occupied an entire house.