MEXICO. 87 



to be seen everywhere in the streets, where pictures, 

 shrines, and processions abound. Few are the palaces, 

 on one part or another of the facades of which you do 

 not descry a patron saint, " sanctified in stone ;" and 

 most of the houses which form the angle of the inter- 

 secting streets, are surmounted by little arabesque shrines 

 rising above the level of the azotea or terraced roof. 



I have hastily penned these brief outlines of the in- 

 terior aspect of the city, intending, as I may feel tempted, 

 to relate the events of the Holy Week which we are 

 approaching, and fill you up the outlines here or there, 

 and to people it, which you see I have omitted to do. 

 Meanwhile, I would lead you without the walls, if a 

 breastwork of hardened mud, stretching across the en- 

 trance of the causeways, deserves the name. 



Round that nucleus of splendid streets and buildings 

 which I have alluded to, in traversing the outskirts of 

 the city, you find a large space occupied by buildings of 

 a very inferior design, interspersed, however, by large 

 and spacious churches. Beyond these, at least on the 

 east and north sides, an exterior circle of scattered cabins 

 is observable, constructed of the adaubi, or unburnt 

 brick, prepared from the clay of the surface, and in- 

 habited by the refuse of the populace. They are posted 

 on the very limits of that plot of ground which, by an 

 elevation of two or three feet over the surface of the 

 lake, had been dignified by the erection of this great 

 city. The whole of this space was probably thickly 

 covered by the ancient capital. 



Over these marshes in the times of Montezuma, cov- 

 ered as they then were by water, three causeways led to 

 the firm land ; namely, that of Tacuba to the west, Te- 

 peaca on the northwest, and Cuoyacan towards the 

 south. It was upon the latter that Cortez made his first 

 entry into the capital. At that time the majority of the 

 streets were intersected by canals ; and the city being 

 surrounded by water on every side, the principal com- 

 munication with the surrounding districts, and between 



