Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/300

284, rush back towards the Capital, and fill the streets which approach nearest to their own level. This was the case in 1553, 1580, 1604, and 1607, in each of which years the Capital was laid entirely under water, and the dikes, (Albaradones,) which had been constructed for its protection, destroyed. The rapid succession of these misfortunes at length compelled the Government to turn its attention to some other mode of averting the danger; and in 1607 an engineer called Enrique Martinez, was commissioned by the Marquis of Salinas, who was then Viceroy, to attempt the drainage of the lake of Zumpango by the stupendous canal now known under the name of the "Desague de Huĕhuĕtōcă.

The plan of Martinez appears to have embraced two distinct objects, the first of which extended to the lakes of Tezcuco and San Cristoval, while the second was confined to the lake of Zumpango, the superfluous waters of which were to be carried into the valley of Tula, by a subterraneous canal, into which the river Guautitlan was likewise to be compelled to flow.

The second of these projects only was approved of by the Government; and the line of the canal having been traced by Martinez between the Cerro (mountain) of Sincōqŭe and the hill of Nŏchistōngŏ, to the North-north-west of Huĕhuĕtōcă, where the mountains that surround the valley are less elevated than in any other spot, the great subterraneous gallery of Nŏchistōngŏ was commenced on the 28th