SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



writers that 30,000 human victims were sacri- 

 ficed at the coronation of Montezuma. Kir- 

 wan, in the preface to his Metaphysics, states 

 the annual number of human victims immo- 

 lated in Mexico to be 2500. I have seen the 

 Indians themselves, a3 they pass, throw stones 

 at it ; and I once saw a boy jump upon it, 

 clinch his fist, stamp with his foot, and use 

 other gesticulations of the greatest abhorrence. 

 As I had been informed that the sides were 

 covered with historical sculpture, I applied to 

 the clergy for the further permission of having 

 the earth removed from around it, which they 

 not only granted, but moreover had it per- 

 formed for me at their own expense. I then 

 took casts of the whole. — It is twenty-five feet 

 in circumference, and consists of fifteen groups 

 of figures, representing the conquests of the 

 warriors of Mexico over different cities, the 

 names of which are written over them. More 

 information is to be acquired from these 



