ZUMPANGO. 163 



The following morning we addressed ourselves early 

 to the duty of escorting our ponderous vehicle to the 

 north towards Lake Zumpango, over a line of country 

 on which we were led to believe that the banditti were 

 as plentiful as the nopal bushes. But here again our 

 perverse good fortune brought us through without adven- 

 ture, or any chance of trying our mettle ; and to tell the 

 truth, had it not been for the coach and its ten mules, 

 a more banditti-looking party than our own could hardly 

 have been met with. 



The range of secondary hills over which our track lay 

 on our early morning ride to Tecama, an old halting 

 place on the Real del Monte road, gave us frequent 

 glimpses of the lakes in the plain below, and particularly 

 of that of San Cristobal, between which and the marshes 

 of Lake Tezcuco, the old Spaniards have left one of the 

 noblest monuments of their skill and magnificence, in the 

 construction of the celebrated dike and causeway, by 

 which they prevented the surplus waters of the higher 

 from entering the lower. Its length is fifteen hundred 

 veras, its breadth ten, and height from three to four ; the 

 whole structure being a mass of solid masonry. 



A short pause at Tecama was followed by our descent 

 into the great level, which, once doubtless covered with 

 waters, extends from the present shores of the lake, round 

 the base of a group of volcanic hills, towards the foot 

 of the great chain, which hems in the valley of Mexico 

 to the north and northeast. 



Zumpango is about five leagues distant from Tecama, 

 or eight from San Juan Teotihuacan. 



It may give you some idea of the utter ignorance 

 which reigns in the capital among the better classes, both 

 natives and Europeans, as to the topography of the coun- 

 try, when I assure you that we had set out on this excur- 

 sion, as upon a journey of discovery ; without being able 

 to gather the slightest information of a positive character 

 with regard to the practicability of what we proposed 



