A TRIP TO MEXICO. 287 



seven years after the discovery of the New World by Columbus. 

 A band of Spanish adventurers, scarcely numbering five hundred, 

 with a daring and prowess unequaled in the world's history, had 

 fought its way over the mountains to the causeways of this lake 

 city, then two hundred years old, peopled by half a million 

 Aztecs, and governed by the richest and most powerful monarch 

 of the Indian Hemisphere. Cortez entered and took up his 

 residence in this hostile city without the slightest hesitation. He 

 shortly after seized the person of Montezurna, threw down the 

 heathen idols and elevated the Catholic, and commenced a most 

 desperate struggle against the overwhelming numbers of the 

 natives, determined to defend their homes and their religion. 

 Once he was driven out with fearful loss, on that memorable 

 " noche triste," the gloomy night ; and he gathered the remnants 

 of his little band, about one hundred and fifty battered and 

 beaten soldiers, under a huge cypress tree, which still stands, 

 protected and venerated, on the northern outskirts of the city. 

 But after a few months, Cortez returned again to the charge ; 

 and then he destroyed and leveled the city as fast as he conquered 

 it. Three-fourths of it were thus pulled down and thrown into 

 the canals, before the remnant submitted and the Spaniards were 

 the acknowledged masters of Mexico. 



On this site was laid out and built the present city, with its 

 rectangular streets and its solid stone buildings. The houses, as 

 in many cities of Europe, are constructed with courts, which are 

 entered from the street through wide passage ways, protected by 

 strong and massive doors. The home life is almost entirely in 

 these open courts, which are surrounded by balconies and cor- 

 ridors. 



The city of Mexico is so nearly on the level of lake Tezcuco 

 that it can have no efficient drainage. In fact most of the streets 

 have only surface drains, and none have them more than from 

 one to two feet below the surface. Mexico would be an exceed- 

 ingly unhealthy city if it were not for the rarity and excessive 

 dryness of the atmosphere. There can be no malarious decay, 

 for nothing remains moist. As it is, the main diseases are those 

 which arise from imperfect oxygenation of the blood, bilious and 



