126 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



signs and patterns, often with subjects from 

 scriptural history, giving the whole a rich 

 and mosaic appearance, quite different from 

 any thing of the kind in Europe. The walls 

 of their great staircases are frequently covered 

 in the same manner, and mixed with a pro- 

 fusion of gilding, which, in contrast with the 

 blue and white porcelain, has really a splen- 

 did effect. I am inclined to think that this 

 mode of ornament was borrowed from the 

 Moorish palaces and mosques existing in 

 Spain at the time of the discovery of Mexico, 

 and introduced into this city and Puebla de 

 los Angeles, when the wealth of the mines of 

 the New World was such as to render it im- 

 practicable for the proprietors to spend their 

 immense revenues in household expenses, 

 equipages, or servants. 



The porcelain was probably the manu- 

 facture of Holland and the Netherlands, 

 then under the Spanish yoke. The walls 



