SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



55 



prehended all that space upon which the 

 great cathedral church now stands, part of 

 the greater market-place, and part likewise of 

 the streets and buildings around. Within 

 the enclosure of the wall which encompassed 

 it in a square form, the conqueror Cortez 

 affirms that a town of five hundred houses 

 might have stood. The wall, built of stone 

 and lime, was very thick, eight feet high, 

 crowned with battlements, in the form of 

 niches, and ornamented with many stone 

 figures in the shape of serpents, whence it 

 obtained the name of coatepantli, or the wall 

 of serpents. It had four gates to the four 

 cardinal points : the eastern gate looked to a 

 broad street which led to the lake of Tezcuco : 

 the rest corresponded to the three principal 

 streets of the city, the broadest and the 

 straightest, which formed a continuation with 

 those built upon the lake that led to Izta- 



palapan, to Tacuba, and to Tepejacae." 



* $ -# * 



