Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/338

278 mountains and glens which border the eastern side of Tescocingo, undoubtedly made this recess a favorite resort for the royal personages at whose expense these costly works were made. From the surrounding seats, they enjoyed a delicious prospect over the lovely but secluded scenery, while, in the basin, at their feet, were gathered the waters of a neighboring spring, which, whilst refreshing them after their promenade on the mountain, gurgled out of its stony channel and fell in a mimic cascade over the precipitous cliff that terminated their path. It was to this shady spot that they no doubt retired in the afternoon, when the sun was hot on the west of the mountain, and here the sovereign and his court, in all probability, enjoyed the repose and privacy which were denied them amid the bustle of the city. Antiquarianism would be greatly assisted in its researches and conjectures, if it recollected that the nature of civilized men is the same in all ages, and that it is easier to judge the architectural remains of our ancestors by this standard than by the fanciful or classical rules, which they are dramatically disposed to conjure up in order to interpret the past.

The hill or mountain of Tescocingo is connected with another hill on the east by a tall embankment about two hundred feet high, upon whose level top,—which may be crossed by three persons abreast, on horseback,—are the remains of an ancient aqueduct, built of baked clay, the pipes of which are now as perfect as on the day they were first laid. The water was brought hither by a canal around the hill to which it is connected by the embankment; while, east of this, and uniting the last hill with another elevation, there is a second aqueduct raised on an embankment, which was fed by other aqueducts and canals that formerly conducted the water from the eastern mountains about three leagues distant.

Such are some of the remains of Tezcocan sumptuousness, in the neighborhood of the ancient capital of this region; and, together with the ancient grove of cypresses, known as El Bosque del Contador, lying across the levels north-west of Tezcoco, may be regarded as the most remarkable relics of the princes and people of the Tezcocan monarchy. The grove of the Contador is formed by double rows of gigantic cypresses, about five hundred in number, arranged in a square corresponding with the points of the compass and enclosing an area of nearly ten acres. At the north-western point of this quadrangle another double row of lordly cypresses runs westwardly towards a dyke, north of which there is a deep oblong