SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 135 



capital was Tezcuco, though small, was, 350 

 years before the arrival of the Spaniards, one 

 of the most populous and most ancient of 

 Anahuac or Mexico. Its greatest length from 

 north to south was seventy, and its breadth 

 only twenty, leagues; besides Tezcuco and 

 Otumba, it contained many other large cities, 

 where to this day are to be seen specimens of 

 rare and astonishing antiquities, particularly 

 at the two places mentioned. 



u Its boundaries were, on the east the re- 

 public of Tlascalla, on the south the province 

 of Chalco, on the north the land of Huastecas, 

 and on the west the lake of Tezcuco : but 

 this small kingdom was afterwards still more 

 reduced by the encroachments made by the 

 Mexicans, with whose kingdom it was at last 

 incorporated, preserving, however, its laws and 

 form of government, its king having the pri- 

 vilege of being one of the electors of the 

 Mexican emperors. 



