Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/239

 the base of the southwest corner is two feet seven inches high, five feet long, and four feet seven inches broad.

When it is recollected that these materials were not found in the neighborhood, but were brought from a great distance, and borne up a hill, (more than three hundred feet high,) we cannot fail to be struck with the industry, toil and ingenuity of the builders, especially as the use of beasts of burden was at that time unknown in Mexico. Nor was this edifice on the summit the only portion of the architect's labor. Huge rocks were brought to form the walls supporting the terraces that surrounded the hill a league in circumference, and the whole of that immense mass was cased in stone. Beyond these terraces again, there was still another immense task in the ditch, of even greater extent, which had to be dug and regularly embanked! When you combine all these difficulties and all their labors, I think you will agree with me, that there are but few works, not of essential utility, undertaken in the present age by civilized nations, that do not sink into insignificance when contrasted with the hill of Xochicalco, from whose summit towered its lofty pyramid of sculptured porphyry.

There appears to be no doubt that a flight of steps rose on the western front from the commencement of the terrace, and terminated before three portals, the remains of which Nebel alleges he discovered; but since his visit, the edifice has been so much injured, and the vegetation has sprung up so vigorously, that I was unable to perceive any indications of the apertures. It is probable that these led to the interior of the Temple, whence there was a communication with the subterranean vaults that have been explored within a few years by persons acting under orders of the Government. I endeavored to examine these underground apartments as soon as I found the opening to them, at the foot of the first terrace on the northern side of the hill; but the guide professed ignorance of the interior, and the Indian he had engaged to pilot me failed in attending. Indeed, such is the superstition of these simple-minded people, that you find it difficult to investigate anything in which their services are required, among the relics of their ancient race. They believe that the mounds and caverns are haunted by the spirits of their ancestors—that they were places of sepulture or holiness—and few have the hardihood to assist in revealing their secrets.

In examining various works on the subject of these ruins, the best notice I have found of them is the account of a visit of certain gentlemen in March, 1835, by order of the Supreme Government. In making a complete examination, both of the pyramid and the hill, this party explored the caverns and vaults.

After describing their course through various dark and narrow passages, the walls of which were covered with a hard and varnished gray cement, that preserved its lustre in a remarkable degree, they came to