Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/30

10 a scarcity of provisions in the valley, where the fields had been ravaged to some extent before the siege, and since despoiled by army foragers.

A plan was drawn for a Spanish quarter, centring round the square already preëminent with imperial palaces and the leading temple in Anáhuac, once consecrated to Christian worship. This was the aristocratic Tenochtitlan, a name long preserved even in official records under the corrupt form of Temixtitan. It was separated by a wide canal from the Indian quarter, which centred chiefly round Tlatelulco, regarded as plebeian long before the conquest. Only a small part was covered by the plan, beyond which the houses afterward extended in striking irregularity as compared with those in the older quarters. In addition to the three regular causeways two more were added, the support along the aqueduct from Chapultepec being enlarged to a road. The Tlacopan road, or rather Tacuba, as it was henceforth termed, soon became a sort of elongated suburb, owing to the numerous vegetable gardens which sprang up on either side of it. The famous levee which protected the southern front of the city from the waters of Xochimilco Lake, and had served as a resort for traders and promenaders, was strengthened and named San Lázaro.

The quarter was laid out in rectangular blocks, the