SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



95 



of much information and great urbanity, I 

 received the most polite attention and hospi- 

 tality. He has a good private library, to 

 which he kindly granted me free access, but 

 not a page could I find descriptive of this 

 noble city, nor has there yet been a Spaniard, 

 that I am aware of, who has written on the 

 subject. 



One of the clergymen took us to the Li- 

 brary at the Bishop's Palace; it is a handsome 

 room, two hundred feet long by forty-five feet 

 wide, and well furnished with books, mostly 

 in vellum bindings, and in the Spanish Ian- 

 guage, though some are in French, and a 

 solitary one, the life of one of our kings, is in 

 English. A Bible in Spanish, with plates, 

 was shown us as a great curiosity, but there 

 were none of the illuminated manuscript 

 Missals so common in our libraries. On my 

 inquiry for the manuscript writings, or Hie- 

 roglyphic Pictures of Ancient Mexico before 



