SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



127 



of the country. As we descended, our guide 

 showed us in the rock a large reservoir for 

 supplying the palace with water, the walls 

 still remained, eight feet in height, and as we 

 explored farther, we found that the whole 

 mountain had been covered with palaces, 

 temples, baths, hanging gardens, &c. ; yet, 

 extraordinary as it must appear, this place 

 has never yet been noticed by any writer. 



I am of opinion that these were antiquities 

 prior to the discovery of America, and 

 erected by a people whose history was lost 

 even before the building of the city of 

 Mexico. In our way down we collected 

 specimens of the stucco which covered the 

 terrace, still as hard and beautiful as any 

 found at Portici or Herculaneum. Don T. 

 Rosalia informed us that we had seen but 

 the commencement of the wonders of the 

 place;— that there were traces of buildings 

 to the very top still discernible ; — that the 



