234 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
We are next to consider the second so-called palace, that in which 
Montezuma lived, and the dinner of Montezuma which these soldiers wit- 
nessed, and which has gone into history as a part of the evidence that a 
monarchy of the feudal type existed in Mexico. They had but little time 
to make their observations, for this imaginary kingdom perished almost im- 
mediately, and the people, in the main, dispersed. The so-called palace of 
Montezuma is not described by Diaz, for the reason, probably, that there 
was nothing to distinguish it from a number of similar structures in the 
pueblo. Neither is it described by Cortes or the Anonymous Conqueror; 
Cortes merely remarking generally that ‘ within the city his palaces were 
so wonderful that it is hardly possible to describe their beauty and extent; 
I can only say that in Spain there is nothing equal to them.”! Gothic 
cathedrals were then standing in Spain, the Alhambra in Grenada, and, 
without doubt, public and private buildings of dressed stone laid in courses. 
While the comparison was mendacious, we can understand the desire of the 
conqueror to magnify his exploits. Herrera, who came later and had addi- 
tional resources, remarks that the palace in which Montezuma resided ‘ had 
twenty gates, all of them to the square or market-place, and the principal 
streets, and three spacious courts, and in one of them a very large fountain. 
* * * There were many halls one hundred feet in length, and rooms of 
twenty-five and thirty, and one hundred baths. The timber-work was small, 
without nails, but very fine and strong, which the Spaniards much admired. 
The walls were of marble, jasper, porphyry, a black sort of stone with red 
veins like blood, white stone, and another sort that is transparent. The 
roofs were of wood, well wrought and carved. * * * ‘The rooms were 
painted and matted, and many of them had rich hangings of cotton and 
coney wool, or of feather-work. The beds were not answerable to the 
grandeur of the house and furniture, being poor and wretched, consisting 
of blankets upon mats or on hay. * * * Few men lie in this palace, 
but there were one thousand women in it, and some say three thousand, 
which is reckoned most likely. * * * Montezuma took to himself the 
ladies that were the daughters of great men, being many in number.” 
The external walls of the houses were covered with plaster. From the 
1 Despatches, p. 121. 2 History of America, ii, 345, 
