CHAPULTEPEC. 



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present day chiefly noted for the large and noble church 

 which was erected there by Cortez. A little in the 

 rear, the ruins of an ancient Mexican pyramid are dis- 

 cernible, constructed of regular courses of unburnt 

 bricks, six inches in thickness ; and hard by, you trace 

 the lines of a Spanish encampment. I do not hazard the 

 opinion, but it might appear by the coincidence, that this 

 was the very position chosen by Cortez for his intrench- 

 ment, after the retreat just mentioned, and before he 

 commenced his painful route towards Otumba. 



Immediately behind Tacuba and San Joachim, you 

 reach a range of high grounds, which, like the lower 

 portions of the mountains surrounding the valley, are per- 

 fectly denuded of the wood which once covered them, 

 and even of soil. They exhibit no vegetation, but scat- 

 tered bushes of cactus and schinus, except in the vicinity 

 of the great Hacienda Morales, and other farms scattered 

 at intervals on the rising ground. From the extremity 

 of the Alameda, you may easily fall into the causeway to 

 Tacuba, by turning to the left ; or yet better, to Cha- 

 pultepec, by following the Paseo Nuevo, an open road 

 raised a few feet above the level of the surrounding 

 meadows, and used as a public evening drive, in rotation 

 with the Paseo de las Vigas, at the southeastern extrem- 

 ity of the city. But I soon got tired of the stately recre- 

 ation of the Promenade ; and after a few experiments at 

 playing "Vaimable" among its stiff' walks and stiffer 

 statues, I constantly turned my horse's head in one or the 

 other direction. 



No traveller, ancient or modern, has failed to notice 

 the beauty and singularity of position of Chapultepec 

 — the hill of the grasshopper — at three miles distance 

 from the city. It is an insulated rock of porphyry, 

 springing up upon what was the margin of the lake, and 

 now surrounded on all sides by fields and meadows over- 

 spread by luxuriant vegetation. That it was a favourite 

 place of resort of the Aztec monarchs, there is no doubt ; 

 and its foot is still clothed with an ancient garden in which 



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