THE DESIERTO. 



173 



timber by the conquerors has entailed the loss of the 

 soil, which they nourished and protected from the dry 

 air of the climate and the effects of the abundant rains 

 of the wet season. 



Shortly after passing the village of Santa Fe, we quit- 

 ted the beaten track to Toluca, and descended into a 

 deep barranca to the left ; continuing to follow it for 

 some miles, till the broad ravine dwindled to a green 

 upland glen. We now reached the wooded region of 

 the mountain ; and, in fine, struck into the ancient paved 

 road leading to the Desierto. In former times this route 

 afforded a comparatively easy access to the inhabitants 

 of the capital, with whom, at certain seasons, a visit to 

 this monastery was an object of great importance. The 

 calzada, though in perfect preservation, and confined be- 

 tween low walls, is solitary enough now. It winds up- 

 ward through woods, which, in their character and pro- 

 ductions, reminded me more of England than those of 

 any part of New Spain I had seen. Thickets of roses 

 and wild brier occupied the ground under the lofty de- 

 ciduous trees ; while the occurrence of little patches of 

 greensward, covered with a species of daisy, and many 

 other flowers which are characteristic of our own climate, 

 added no little to the resemblance. 



On attaining the elevation of the little shelf, upon 

 which the monastery is situated, towards the head of a 

 steep gully in the breast of the sierra, the pine begins to 

 predominate, and probably in former times it was the 

 principal forest tree of the whole chain. We found the 

 Desierto situated amid a wilderness of flowering shrubs, 

 which, since the hand of time has unroofed a great por- 

 tion of the structure, have shed their seeds into the courts, 

 till they were positively choked with bushes. Nor was 

 the elder here wanting — that never-failing parasite of 

 the gray ruined abbeys and castles of England. 



The architecture of the building, which w r as erected 

 soon after the conquest, is by no means distinguished for 



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