MEXICO. 



83 



mean time of the potpourri^ which I forthwith serve up 

 to you. 



The general position and remarkable features of the 

 valley and capital of New Spain, have been too often de- 

 scribed not to have become familiar to you. 



You have seen, how, in our ascent from the coast, after 

 we had passed through the teeming and fertile uplands 

 of the torrid region at the base of the mountains, we had 

 mounted from one broad and varied step of this gigan- 

 tic mountain mass to another, till we had gained the in- 

 terior plateau, where, at the height of 7470 feet, girdled 

 by the severed chain of the southern cordillera, the val- 

 ley of Mexico, with its lakes, marshes, towns, villages, 

 and noble city, opened upon our view. 

 I The general figure of the valley is a broken oval of 

 about sixty miles in length, by thirty-five in breadth. At 

 the present day, even when divested of much that must 

 have added to its beauty in the eyes of the great cap- 

 tain, and his eager followers, when, descending from the 

 mountains in the direction of Vera Cruz, after overcom- 

 ing so many difficulties, the view of the ancient city and 

 its valley at length burst upon them like a beautiful 

 dream — I never saw, and I think I never shall see on 

 earth, a scene comparable to it. I often made this re- 

 flection, whenever my excursions over the neighbouring 

 mountains led me to a point which commanded a general 

 view. 



I could not look upon it as did the Spanish invaders, 

 as the term of indescribable fatigues, and of dangers, 

 known and unknown ; the rich mine which should repay 

 them for their nights of alarm and their days of toil, and 

 compensate for their seemingly utter abandonment of 

 home ; the prize that should satisfy the cravings of the 

 most inordinate, and fill th^ir laps with that dear gold for 

 which they had ventured all ! I could not enter into the 

 ecstasy of the moment, when, after pursuing their blind 

 way to this paradise from the plains of Tlascala and 

 Cholula, into the recesses of pine-clad and barren rocks, 

 higher and higher towards the cold sky, till untrodden 



