Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/181

136 "His major domo was, at this time, a prince named Tapica; who kept the accounts of Montezuma's rents in books which occupied an entire house.

"Montezuma had two buildings filled with every kind of arms, richly ornamented with gold and jewels; such as shields, large and small clubs like two-handed swords, and lances much larger than ours, with blades six feet in length, so strong that if they fix in a shield they do not break; and sharp enough to use as razors.

"There was also an immense quantity of bows and arrows, and darts, together with slings, and shields which roll up into a small compass, and in action are let fall, and thereby cover the whole body. He had also much defensive armor of quilted cotton, ornamented with feathers in different devices, and casques for the head, made of wood and bone, with plumes of feathers, and many other articles too tedious to mention."

In this Palace, where the Emperor dwelt in almost oriental splendor, he had his gardens, and ponds, and aviaries. At Chapultepec, a hill on the west of the city, he owned another palace, amid groves, fountains and trees, and many of the cypresses with which the grounds were adorned still remain in all their vigor. Besides these, he had his menageries, where every species of wild beast, venomous serpent, curious fish, and bird of beautiful plumage, were gathered together and watched by innumerable attendants.

Soon after the arrival of Cortéz in Mexico, he expressed to the Emperor a desire to see his city; and, with all becoming pomp and ceremony, (having first of all consulted his priests as to the propriety,) he took his future conqueror to the top of the great Temple, whence he beheld the splendor of the Indian capital.

Streets, canals, shrines; large and beautiful houses, amid groves and gardens; markets, where every luxury of fruit and vegetables was to be found; aqueducts, which brought sweet water from the hills; streets filled with artists who wove the most beautifully pictured garments from plumes of birds, or fashioned the precious metals into gorgeous ornaments;— palaces, where the nobles dwelt in all the magnificence of barbaric wealth;—all these lay in splendor beneath him, while the land and water swarmed with an active but superstitious multitude, and the lakes beyond bore them across its silvery surface, dotted with floating gardens,