464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



cultivate their "chinampas." They exacted from them, however, 

 " as a token of gratitude and subjection, a tribute of vegetables, fish, 

 frogs, and other products of the lagoon." After some years, angered 

 because the newcomers had presumed to elect a ruler of their own, 

 the King of Atzcapotzalco decided to demand an additional tribute, 

 the rendering of which he thought well-nigh impossible. 



His messengers informed the settlers that beside the customary 

 tribute they were henceforth to furnish, firstly, grown willow and 

 juniper trees for planting in his capital as an embellishment. 

 Secondly, they were to manufacture a raft on top of which they were 

 to plant all native vegetables and then bring it by water to Atzcap- 

 otzalco. The chronicle records that the Mexicans were filled with 

 consternation and grief at so unheard of a demand, but during the 

 night their tribal god appeared to one of their elders and told him 

 to be of good cheer for he would lend aid in making the raft. To 

 the amazement of the King of Atzcapotzalco, who declared the feat 

 " almost supernatural," they actually delivered not only the trees but 

 the floating raft garden full of flourishing food plants and flowers. 



Summoning the Mexicans to his palace, he addressed them as fol- 

 lows : " Brethren, it appears to me that you are powerful and that 

 all things are easy to } r ou. It is therefore my wish that in future 

 when you pay your tribute you are to bring on the raft, among the 

 growing vegetables, which are to be in perfect condition, a duck and 

 a heron, each sitting on her eggs. You are to time it so that on ar- 

 riving here the eggs will hatch. If these conditions are not ful- 

 filled the penalty will be death." 



Again the tribal god came to the rescue and the extraordinary 

 tribute was punctually delivered for 50 years, by the end of which 

 time the Mexicans had become powerful enough to cast off their yoke 

 and bondage. From the foregoing it is evident that, as another native 

 historian remarks, the making of " floating gardens " was always 

 considered " an almost impossible and most laborious performance " 

 and was entirely exceptional. The memory of the tyranically ex- 

 acted tribute and its payment has, however, been kept alive through 

 the intervening centuries, and as a feature of the water pageants and 

 festivals held on the Viga Canal in viceregal and modern times has 

 often been a simulacrum of a " floating garden," countenance has been 

 lent to the popular, absurd, idea that the chinampas were also " float- 

 ing " and could be towed at will from place to place. 



After reading in the preceding pages of the beauty of the vanished 

 gardens of ancient Mexico, the reader will doubtless share the writer's 

 regret that, at the present time, there is no botanical garden in Mexico 

 or elsewhere containing a representative collection of the wonderful 

 native flora which furnished so much delight to countless generations 

 of the earliest American flower garden lovers. 



