Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/66

 60 sacrifice had been attended with such good results that they resolved to celebrate the building of the new temple—humble though it was—by the taking of another victim's life. They captured one of their enemies, and cutting out his heart with a sharp knife of flint, or obsidian, offered it to their god. Thus was baptized with blood the foundation stone of Mexico, a city that two centuries later was to be wrested from the race that built it, attended by the slaughter of thousands. The condition of the Mexicans was yet very wretched, for they had made enemies of all the tribes in Anahuac, and had to depend upon their sole exertions. Their island, in the first place, was too small, and to remedy this they dug ditches and canals, and banked up the marshy places to form gardens and building spots. For food, they depended upon fish and the reptiles and insects of the lake, and at the end of the rainy season the lake was covered—even as at the present day—by innumerable water-fowl. It was at this period, or a little previous, that they constructed those wonderous floating gardens, upon which they raised their corn and vegetables.

There has been much dispute over this subject, as to whether the ancient Mexicans ever really had any such things as these floating gardens, as none of them can be found at the present day. There is no doubt that they did have them, for if we take into account the nature of their surroundings: with no firm land extensive enough for cultivation, and the nearest shore in possession of enemies, we must see that it was necessary for them to have something of the kind. It is said that they wove together willows and rushes, and upon this floating framework piled grass, leaves, and mud, thus forming a very fertile soil, always moist and extremely productive. These little gardens they could tow about from place to place after their canoes; but though writers of a century ago or more claim