HUEHUETOCA. 



165 



great inundations, in spite of the gradual decrease of the 

 waters of Lake Tezcuco, from causes which I have hinted 

 at in the first page of this letter. 



The attention of the Spanish viceroys being thus im- 

 peratively drawn to the subject, about the commencement 

 of the seventeenth century, a scheme was formed by a 

 Spanish engineer, Enrico Martinez, by the execution of 

 which, the surplus waters from the two upper lakes to the 

 northward — San Cristobal and Zumpango — were to be 

 drawn off in another direction ; their basins being the 

 most liable to overflow, from the character and size of 

 their tributaries. 



The comparative depression and narrowness of the 

 mountain rampart, hemming in the valley to the north- 

 ward, in the vicinity of Lake Zumpango, favoured the 

 project of constructing a tunnel by which this should be 

 affected, forming a duct through which all the waters 

 rising above a certain level should be conveyed into the 

 bed of the river Tula, the main branch of the Panuco, 

 whose source lay on the other side of the ridge, and 

 which you will recognise as entering the gulf at Tam- 

 pico. 



This great work was commenced in 1607, and in the 

 course of its prosecution by the hand of the native In- 

 dians, hundreds are said to have perished by the caving 

 in of the earth and other casualties. But what was that ? 

 the work was to be done, and if Indians were wanted, 

 a party of horsemen armed with the lasso was sent out 

 to the distant villages, and the poor natives were secured 

 and brought to the scene of toil like so many wild horses. 



The memory of what their ancestors endured at Hue- 

 huetoca, both at this epoch and in after times, is not for- 

 gotten by the present race. 



A tunnel or subterranean gallery was at length fin- 

 ished, 20,000 feet in length : but, in 1629, the stoppage 

 of the passage by the fall of the roof, or other casualty, 

 combined with a season of unusual flood, caused such a 

 rise in the waters of Lake Tezcuco, that the whole of the 

 ancient bed, and the streets of the capital itself, with the 

 exception of the very highest levels^ were covered with 



