300 ANCIENT ASCENT OF POrOCATEPETL. 



back,' says Cortez, ' only snow and pieces of ice, the ap* 

 pearance of which astonished us very much, because this 

 country is under the 20^ of latitude, in the parallel of the 

 island Espanola, and consequently, according to the 

 opinion of the pilots, ought to be very warm.' 



" Three years later, however, after two unsuccessful 

 attempts, the Spaniards succeeded in seeing the crater of 

 Popocatepetl. It seemed to them three-fourths of a 

 league in circumference, and they found on the brink of 

 the precipice a small quantity of sulphur, which had 

 been deposited there by the vapours. Cortez relates : 

 ' that he is in no want of sulphur for the manufacture of 

 powder, because a Spaniard drew some from a mountain 

 which perpetually smokes, by descending, tied to a rope, 

 to the depth of from seventy or eighty fathoms.' 



" A document preserved in the family of the Montafios, 

 and which Cardinal Lorenzana affirms he once had in 

 his hands, proves that the Spaniard of whom Cortez 

 speaks, was Francisco Montano. Did that intrepid man 

 really enter into the crater of Popocatepetl ; or did he 

 extract the sulphur, as several persons in Mexico sup- 

 pose, from a lateral crevice of the volcano ? M. Alzate, 

 with very little foundation affirms, that Diego Ordaz ex- 

 tracted sulphur from the crater of the old volcano of 

 Tuctli, to the east of the lake of Chalco, near the Indian 

 village of Tuliahualco. The makers of contraband pow- 

 der no doubt procure sulphur there ; but Cortez expressly 

 designates Popocatepetl by the phrase, * the mountain 

 which constantly smokes.' Be this as it may, it is certain 

 that after the rebuilding of the city of Tenochtitlan, the 

 soldiers of the army of Cortez ascended the summit of 

 Popocatepetl, where nobody has since been." 



