SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO* 



37 



the Spaniards on its ruins. It stood, at that 

 time, like Venice, on a number of small 

 islands in the lake, from which it is now, 

 owing to the receding of the waters, distant 

 about two miles. Bernal Dias, when looking 

 down on the city from the top of the great 

 Teocalli or Temple, compares it, from its 

 regular division into squares, to an immense 

 chess-board. This division appears to have 

 been copied in the present city, which does 

 not, however, contain one half so many 

 squares as are depicted on the fragments of 

 the ancient map. These squares seem to 

 have been surrounded either by paved roads, 

 or canals which could be passed by canoes, 

 the former being marked by footsteps, and 

 the latter by curled waves. In each of the 

 squares or divisions was a temple, the name 

 of which, in the Aztec character, was placed 

 over it, and this also has been translated into 

 the Spanish language, and is probably in the 



