Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/239

 amethysts, rubies, and sapphires. The statue of the Assumption (now missing) was of gold, ornamented with diamonds, and is said to have cost $1,090,000. There was a golden lamp, valued at $70,000, which it cost at one time $1,000 to clean, but according to a French writer,—and the joke is his,—the liberal troops cleaned it out for nothing, and it has not been seen since. These treasures are merely enumerated as having once been here, for it is difficult to believe that they still occupy a place in the dazzling mass of gilding and ornament surrounding altar and choir, in a country that has passed through such trial and revolution as has Mexico. But these and much more existed, and were accumulated when bishop, priest, and monk ruled the country with a rod of iron, and possessed two thirds the entire wealth of the nation.

Enter at any time, and you may see some kneeling figure, it may be of a rich and beautiful Señora, with the purest of Castilian blood in her veins, or a miserable Indian just in from the country, with a load of vegetables, or even a coop of struggling chickens, still at his back. During the crowded attendance on feast-days and at other times, rich and poor, cleanly and filthy ones, mingle indiscriminately, and then the leperos, while pretending to great devotion, find it easy to relieve the wealthier members of society of their purses and handkerchiefs.

One day, when first in Mexico, Cortes ascended to the top of the teocalli, and Montezuma, taking him by the hand, pointed out to him the various parts of the city. In like manner, let us ascend the cathedral tower and look over the selfsame valley, from nearly the same height and point of view occupied by the Spanish conqueror and the Aztec emperor. "This is a royal place," says Bishop Haven, "to see this royal city. Never had town such grand environment. Athens has mountains and sea, but scanty plains; Rome, plains, but no water, and low-browed hills; Jerusalem, mountains, but no plains nor sea. . . . The city lies all about us, its limits being equidistant in every