have had one earlier. The others followed at a
respectful distance of time.

At Tezcotzinco (five miles from Tezcuco), King
Nezahualcoyotl had a garden hanging on the side
of a hill, which was reached by a flight of five
hundred steps, and which was surmounted by a
reservoir, from which the water descended into
three successive basins, each decorated with
colossal statues. A simple cacique, at Huaxtepec,
had gardens five miles in circumference—a park,
in short. The humblest individuals shared the
taste of the great for flowers. When Cortes,
shortly after landing, entered the town of
Cempoalla, the natives came to meet him, both
men and women mingling with the ranks of his
soldiers, and bringing bouquets and garlands of
flowers, which they hung round the neck of
Cortes's horse, while others adorned his helmet
with chaplets of roses.

Singular were the chinarnpas, or floating
gardens, which, swarmed in numbers on the lakes.
Doubtless, the idea was taken from verdant tufts
that had fallen into the water, or from rafts of
wood on which grass had grown. These artificial
islands, from fifty to a hundred yards in length,
served for the culture of vegetables and flowers
to supply the markets of the capital.

The arts and trades of ancient Mexico produced
not only what was necessary for the requirements
of life, but even articles of luxury. They were skilful
weavers of cotton and aloe thread. With cotton
they made a sort of cuirass (escaupil), impenetrable
by arrows. They were acquainted with a
great many mineral and vegetable dyes, besides
employing cochineal. They baked pottery for
domestic uses, and made, like the modern
Russians, numerous utensils of varnished wood.
They had no iron, but supplied its place, for
tools, with bronze, which, by tempering, acquires
considerable hardness. Bronze, however, could
not have been very common, because, for the
same purposes, they employed a vitreous mineral
harder than glass—obsidian, which they called
iztli, found in volcanic formations. They cut
this natural glass into plates with an edge, and
employed it for knives, razors (although less
bearded than we are, they still had barbers),
arrow-heads, and spear-heads. From their mines,
which they roughly worked, they extracted lead,
tin, silver, gold, and copper; They excelled in
working the precious metals. The ornaments
and vessels of gold and silver which Cortes re-
ceived from Montezuma before ascending to the
table-land, as well as those which he found at
Mexico, were cast, soldered, chased with the
graver, enriched with gems, and enamelled with
a skill at least equal to that of European gold-
smiths. " No prince in the known world," Cortes
wrote to Charles the Fifth, " possesses jewellery
equivalent to his in value." And he clearly
gives you to understand that the workmanship
was in no way inferior to the materials.

Another art which the Aztecs practised
with great success, was the manufacture of
feather tapestry. The country, like most others
beneath the tropics, abounds with birds of
brilliant plumage. These feathers, artistically
woven by means of a cotton warp, and sometimes
intermingled with the fur of animals, formed
tissues of the richest and most varied colours,
of elegant and correct design, which were worn
by the rich, or which served for ornamental
hangings in the palaces and temples. This
manufacture employed a great many hands, and
its produce made a sensation ia Europe.

A Mexican chief, when he went to battle,
wore a mantle of feathers over his golden cuirass.
His helmet, sometimes of wood and leather, sometimes
of silver, represented the menacing head
of the animal which was his family emblem, and
bore a plume of feathers of his family colours.
His arms were adorned with bracelets, and a
necklace of jewels hung over his breast. Many
carried a carved buckler, which was surrounded
by a fringe of feathers. Their weapons were,
the arrow, the sling, the javelin, the spear, and
the maquahuitl: a sort of two-handed sword,
about a yard long, with a double edge made of
plates of obsidian fixed in a bar of wood. The
points of their spears and arrows were often of
copper.

The Aztec architecture was monumental.
They possessed several kinds of stone of volcanic
origin, which were at the same time light and
durable. For statuary, which they practised much
without producing anything better than hideous
idols, resembling those of India and China,
they had black porphyry and speckled granites.
Their palaces were spacious, but almost all of
one story only, and composed of separate build-
ings scattered over a vast enclosure, according to
the Chinese plan. Their apartments were ceiled
with odoriferous woods skilfully carved. The
outside walls were coated with a hard white
stucco, which caused them to shine in the sun.
At the first Mexican town (Cempoalla) which
the Spaniards saw, the horsemen of the vanguard,
deceived by this brilliant whiteness, and also,
perhaps, by their own imagination, galloped
back to inform their comrades that the houses
were encased in plates of silver. This mistake
probably suggested Southey's

       Queen of the valley, thou art beautiful;
       Thy walls, like silver, sparkle in the sun.

Their temples were tall pyramids of bricks baked
in the sun, or of earth merely, but faced with
stone, surmounted by sanctuaries and towers
ornamented with images of their gods. On the
summit there were constantly blazing fires,
which, during the darkness of the long tropical
nights, gave to those edifices a mysterious
aspect. The immensity of the temples and
palaces, the enormous labour required for the
constructions of all kinds which crowded the
valley of Mexico, including the piers of masonry
jutting into the lake, drew cries of admiration
from the " conquistadores." As to the city of
Mexico itself, when Guatimozin's obstinate
defence compelled Cortes to demolish it house