Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/308

296 stationary now, or at least, all those along the banks of the canal, having been anchored down by cotton-wood trees planted along their edges, which taking deep root, have fixed their hold firmly in the earth below the water. They rise, at most, but two or three feet above the surface of the water, and are in the form of oblong squares, and perfectly level. Every description of garden vegetables, corn, etc., etc., grow finely on these marsh gardens, many of which are fringed with tall cane, and most of them are highly cultivated. Hundreds of boats, loaded with "produce," were met coming down the canal, and others conveying passengers, or loaded with stable manure from the city, being carried out to the gardens, were seen at every point. There were also many little canoes, each about twelve feet long, and two feet wide, hollowed from the trunk of a single tree, in which stalwart Indians were poling their families up and down the canal.

A detachment of cavalry galloped along the banks as the flotilla moved up the canal, to guard it against a possible attack. It was a curious sight to see these bronze-hued soldiers of the Aztec blood guarding a party of another race, galloping across the bridge which Cortez seized and held as his first point of vantage against the city, which their ancestors defended with such desperate but fruitless valor against the Spanish invaders.

Disembarking for a few minutes, at the old, ruinous town of Santa Anita, we went on to an Indian village with an unpronounceable name, and a tumble-down, old church—in which the priest was hearing confessions from kneeling women, on both sides of his open box at the same time—and there disembarked for the final picnic.