Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/497

Rh missionary for his meat, but from love of the sport, and the strong arm of the government alone exerts a repressive influence over him.

We were in Tezcoco, that home of early kings, one of the three seats of power in Anahuac at the beginning of the fifteenth century. A mile or two from town, the place is pointed out whence Cortés launched his brigantines, at the investment of the Aztec capital. At the period of his coming there were greater pyramids and richer palaces, and perhaps more extensive gardens, than in the city ruled by Montezuma himself. Remains now exist here of three large pyramids, or temples, masses of adobe brick intermixed with shards of pottery and fragments of sculptured stones. Only just before our arrival, a gentleman from Chicago, Captain Evans, brought to the notice of the world a carved stone of goodly dimensions, which had been found in one of the adobe mounds a few months previously. Over the gateway to the garden, adjoining the old church, were three hideous idols, and a search throughout the wretched town which now occupies the site of the ancient metropolis would reveal many a relic of the departed Tezcocans. But little business is done here now, since the lake has left Tezcoco miles inland, and a few tiendas and one fonda comprise shops and hotels; but the people are well disposed towards a stranger, and one can secure tolerable lodging at the "Macedonia," and Mexican meals at the "Restaurant Universal."

Now reached by the narrow-gauge branch of the Morelos road, Tezcoco is easy of access, and no visitor should leave out of his journey this once famous Acolhuan city. As for me, I revelled in Tezcoco, for it had been known to me, through Bernal Diaz and Prescott, for many years. What can be finer in the descriptions of the older historian than that of the arrival of the timber for the brigantines at the border of the lake, when the brave Tlascalan Indians marched in, several thousand strong, with the lumber on their shoulders, and shouting, "Tlascala! Tlascala! Castilla! Castilla!" for the space of half a day? And here, too, was the palace of Nezahualcoyotl, the King David of Mexican history, whose halls and gardens are so lovingly