SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. Ill 



A scaffold was then erected by order of 

 the bishop against the side of the cathedral, 

 to allow me to cast the great Calendar stone, 

 vulgularly called Montezuma's watch. It is 

 thirty-six feet in circumference, but being 

 flat, I was enabled to take it in several pieces, 

 as without this it would have been difficult to 

 have removed the copy to the sea-coast for 

 embarkation. This cast was attended with 

 much personal labour ; for, as I could enlist 

 none who understood the process, to assist us, 

 the whole trouble devolved on my son and 

 myself ; but the publicity which these ope- 

 rations gave to my pursuits were so far ad- 

 vantageous, that through them I had several 

 statues, manuscripts, and other antiquities 

 offered to me for sale, which otherwise I could 

 never have discovered. 



Having prepared my casts for transport- 

 ation, and finding a little leisure from my 

 other avocations, I determined to visit all those 



