Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/412

404 chasm that is narrowest, being about seventy feet in depth and not over thirty (I should think) in breadth; and it is spanned by the quaintest structure of masonwork for a bridge that ever leaped across a ravine, being a double arch, one of which carries an aqueduct, from which the water trickles down the steep, fern-hung walls of stone, and patters far below into the water beneath. Among many rough sketches of Mexican scenery contained in a portfolio stolen from me in the city of Mexico, was one of this old bridge; and the only consolation I ever got from this loss was the reflection that among other papers then lost was a particularly caustic description of the Mexican himself, drawn as from the standpoint of a decided pessimist.

The greatest attraction in town, save one, is the "Garden of Laborde." In the year 1743, a poor youth named Laborde came to Mexico, where eventually he gained immense wealth, twice making, and once losing, a vast fortune, which at his death he gave to the Church. In Cuernavaca he built a buen retiro, a pleasure garden, on a more magnificent scale than any since the time of the Aztec and Tezcocan monarchs. This magnificent work of a century ago is still in good preservation here, and is shown to visitors, who are admitted at the cost of a real each. The grounds adjoin a church and convent, founded by Laborde, that now are going to ruin, and run back from one of the principal streets of the town to the brink of the western ravine. At the angles of the high and massive walls bellevues arise, commanding extensive and beautiful prospects, directly above the barranca, overlooking its winding course and the great sweep of mountain and plain to the south and to the west. To these bellevues broad stone ways lead up from the centre of the garden, covered with hard plaster, painted in red and white, bordered with stone pillars supporting vases of flowers. The grand feature of this garden, with its palms and ferns, its choice exotics and profusest vegetation, is the central lakelet in a stone basin five hundred feet long, with artificial islets containing magueys and tropical plants. There is water enough stored here for the supply of a small town; it gushes out everywhere, in fountains, into reservoirs of hewn stone, and is guided in rivulets to the feet