"ENViEONS OF MEXICO. 123 



this horrible institution were especially (he "heretical" sailors captured by the 

 Spanish cruisers. 



Mexico is rapidly growing along both sides of the road leading to Tacuha, 

 which replaces the old highway by which the Spaniards made their disastrous 

 retreat during the Noclie Triste or " Sorrowful Night." Near the village of 

 Popotla is still seen the old cj'press under which Cortes sat vainly awaiting the 

 arrival of over 400 of his men, whose bodies lay heaped up in the gory mud at 

 the breaches of the causeway. Round about this historic tree stretch vast 

 marshy gardens, and farther on are seen the houses of Tacviba. Under the name 

 of Tlacopdiii this place was formerly one of the three cities of the Nahua confede- 

 ration. Farther north, on the road leading to the desague of Huehuetoca, stands 

 C««/(^iY/f/;/, the "Eagle-town," which gave rise to the Mexican saying, "Bevond 

 Mexico naught but Cuautitlan," meaning that except Mexico there was nothing 

 in the world worth seeing. 



A superb avenue shaded with eucalyptus-trees leads from the capital to the 

 porphyritic eminence of Chapultepec, or " JMountain of the Cicada." This avenue 

 is lined with statues, one of which commemorates the last Aztec king, Guatimozin, 

 "heroic in the defence of his country and sublime in his martyrdom," burnt alive 

 by the infamous conquistadores. On the rock of Chapultejaec formerly stood 

 Montezuma's suburban residence, which has now been replaced by a palace of vast 

 size. This huge pile w^as erected in the last century by the Viceroy Galvez, with 

 the intention, said his Mexican subjects, of making it a stronghold from which 

 to proclaim his independence as Emperor of Mexico. The palace, a part of which 

 has become the military school, commands from its terraces the finest panoramic 

 view of the capital with its lakes and encircling mountains. The surrounding 

 promenades are also the ' most umbrageous on the Anahuac plateau. Here are 

 found the gigantic " cypresses " {cupressus cUsticha), or ahuehuetes, that is, " Old 

 Men of the Waters," which already existed before the arrival of Cortes. Some 

 of these giants of the vegetable kingdom, with their wide-spreading branches and 

 foliage shaped like a "Spanish beard," have a girth of 50 and a height of 160 

 feet. At Churuhmco, a little to the south of this place, the Americans gained the 

 decisive victory which made them masters of the capital in 1847. The following 

 year was signed the treaty of peace of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which half of the 

 national territory was ceded to the United States. 



The aqueduct, which is fed by the various springs from the mountains south- 

 west of Mexico, supplies both the Chapultepec gardens and the aristocratic suburb 

 of Taciihaya, whose villas are dotted over the district south of Chapultepec. 

 From this place excursions are made round about to San Augel, to the picturesque 

 group of hamlets nestling in the valleys of Mount Ajusco, and to the pedregal, 

 or lava streams, which have flowed from this volcano, but which are now over- 

 grown with cactus and brushwood. Tlalpani, famous as a place of pilgrimage, 

 lies in a deep ravine between two masses of scoriœ; it was through this ravine 

 that the Americans penetrated into the valley of Mexico. 



North-east of the capital the Tepeyacac heights, source of a spring of ferru- 



