SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 123 



mean and dirty, the people inhabiting them 

 covered with rags, or merely wrapped in their 

 blankets. So great was my disappointment, 

 that I could scarcely bring myself to believe 

 that I was in the capital of New Spain, the 

 great mart of the precious metals, from 

 whence they chiefly flow to all parts of the 

 habitable world: a few minutes more, how- 

 ever, brought me into the city, and whatever 

 I had hitherto seen of regularity and largeness 

 of streets, size and grandeur of churches and 

 houses, was here, I confess, surpassed, and I 

 felt at once, as by magic, amply repaid for all 

 the dangers and troubles I had undergone. 

 Many of the streets are nearly two miles in 

 length, perfectly level and straight, and with 

 the ends terminating in the view of the moun- 

 tains that surround the valley. The houses 

 are chiefly of a uniform height, generally of 

 three stories, highly decorated, and orna- 

 mented with two rows of balconies of wrought 



