ON THE GARDENS OF MEXICO. 151 



were cultivated in broad terraced gardens, laid out between the 

 edifices. Occasionally a great square or market-place intervened, 

 surrounded its porticoes of stone and stucco ; or a pyramidal temple 

 reared its colossal bulk, crowned with its tapering sanctuaries, and 

 altars blazing with inextinguishable fires. The great street facing 

 the southern causeway, unlike most others in the place, was wide, 

 and extended some miles in nearly a straight line, as before noticed, 

 through the centre of the city. A spectator standing at one end of it, 

 as his eye ranged along the deep vista of temples, terraces, and 

 gardens, might clearly discern the other, with the blue mountains in 

 the distance, which, in the transparent atmosphere of the table-land, 

 seemed almost in contact with the buildings. As they (the 

 Spaniards) passed down the spacious street, the troops repeatedly 

 traversed bridges suspended above canals, along which they saw the 

 Indian barks gliding swiftly with their little cargoes of fruits and 

 vegetables for the markets, &c. 



" The Clmiamjxis, that archipelago of wandering islands, have, 

 also, nearly disappeared. These had their origin in the detached 

 masses of earth, which, loosening from the shores, were still held 

 together by fibrous roots, with which they were penetrated. The 

 primitive Aztecs, in their poverty of land, availed themselves of the 

 hint thus afforded by nature. They constructed rafts of reeds, rushes, 

 and other fibrous materials, which, tightly knit together, formed a 

 sufficient basis for the sediment that they drew up from the bottom of 

 the lake. Gradually islands were formed, two or three hundred feet 

 in length, and three or four feet in depth, with a rich stimulated 

 soil, on which the economical Indian raised his vegetables and flowers 

 for the markets of Tenochtitlan. Some of these Chinampas were 

 even firm enough to allow the growth of small trees, and to sustain a 

 hut for the residence of the person who had the charge of it, who 

 with a long pole, resting on the sides or bottom of the shallow basin, 

 could change the position of his little territory at pleasure, which, 

 with its rich freight of vegetable stores, was seen moving like some 

 enchanted island over the water. How gay and picturesque must 

 have been the aspect in those days with its shining cities, and flower- 

 ing islets, rocking, as it were, at anchor on the fair bosom of its 

 waters. 



The gardens of Iluaxtepec are thus described: — "The Spanish 



