Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/491

Rh the conquest. It is, of course, impossible to give the population of the ancient capital with any approach to accuracy; and, apart from the records of the chroniclers, we can but draw our conclusions from the number of warriors whom Cuitlahuatzin and Quauhtemotzin arrayed against the Spaniards and their allies, from the remains of walls and buildings, and from what we can ascertain of the circumference of the city.

From the 4th of July 1523, on which date, it will be remembered, a coat of arms was presented to the capital of New Spain-in consideration of its being "tan insigne y noble," until the close of the eighteenth century the growth in population had not been remarkable. Cortés in a letter dated October 15, 1524, intimates, as we have seen, that there were then 30,000 vecinos, although this number doubtless included many non-residents, while Gromara, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth century, makes mention of two thousand Spanish settlers alone, and Torquemada, who describes events that occurred thirty years later, places the number of Spanish households as high as seven thousand, and of native families at eight thousand. Allowing for exaggeration, it must be said, therefore, that the progress of the metropolis in this particular was much smaller than that of many of the old-world capitals during a similar period, and far less than has been made within two or three decades by many cities on this continent.

It requires no slight exercise of faith to believe that the modern capital which is now distant about a league from the shore of the lake, was built on the