Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/495

Rh school is said to have existed at the time in the capital or in the provinces, and nearly all the other institutions of learning were under the charge of friars, generally ignorant and cruel, while the female institutes were directed by women whose mode of teaching consisted in narrating ridiculous stories of saints, calculated to develop the superstition of the listeners. Of useful knowledge, a little reading and writing were sufficient. Even the school of mining, so celebrated in after years, was only an institute in name. It lacked professors, instruments, and apparatus, and its utility was questionable. All these matters received the attention of the viceroy. At the same time he established a new police system and remodelled the administration of justice. Great changes were soon apparent, and the labors of Revilla Gigedo became of lasting benefit to New Spain, particularly to the capital.

Notwithstanding these drawbacks, at the close of the eighteenth century Mexico was the largest city in America, and one of the finest built by Europeans on either hemisphere. From north to south it measured one league, and three fourths of a league from east to west. It was encircled by a ditch, or navigable canal, which served at the same time as a drain and military defence, and prevented goods from being introduced except by the causeways and gates, thus serving as a protection to the customs department. The buildings were plain and elegant, not overladen with ornament, and not disfigured by the uncouth galleries and balconies so common to other Spanish cities. The material of which they were mainly constructed—tetzontli and a peculiar kind of porphyry —gave them an aspect of solidity and