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142 still yet more probability attributable to a people of an age yet more remote.

Our descent was rapid. It was night by the time we crept forth from the deep barranca which separates the base of the hill of Tezcozingo from the plains, and gained La Navidad. The wind blew cold, but we galloped swiftly onward, and in less than one hour's time reached the meson at Tezcuco, where our servants and carriage had long before preceded us. The arrival of four armed horsemen at that time of the evening seemed to excite some sensation in the little town, and the rumour soon reached the commandant, who thought proper to pay us an official but very shy visit: and after being satisfied that we were good men and true, apologized, by saying that times were bad, and it had been suspected we were some of Canalizza's insurgents. Next came, also officially announced, the secretary of the alcalde, with a similar polite request, that we would say who we were; also backed by an humble apology, with this variation, that it had been rumoured that we were a party of Ladrones or banditti! By means of the information gained by these several functionaries, however, the good people of Tezcuco were now enabled to sleep in peace and quiet, leaving the strangers within their walls to their repose also.

There are but few remains exposed to the observation of a superficial and hasty observer, to vindicate the ancient claim of Tezcuco to be considered as the second city of the Mexican empire. Yet so it incontestibly was, according to the Spanish historians, and I have no doubt but a careful survey might bring to light much of a most interesting character to the antiquary.

The ruins of tumuli, and other constructions of unbaked bricks, intermingled with platforms and terraces of considerable extent, are still to be traced; and it is asserted that many of the Spanish edifices are constructed out of the ruins of the teocallis, or of the palaces, which existed here at the time the Spaniards built the present town.