OPERATIONS OF THE ENGINEERS MARTINEZ AND BOOT. 181 



year 1623, when a Dutch engineer, named Adrian Boot, induced 

 the viceroy to resume the old system of dyke and embankments, 

 and to give orders for closing the tunnel of Nochistongo. A sud- 

 den rise in the lake of Tezcoco caused these orders to be revoked, 

 and Martinez was again allowed to proceed with his works which 

 he continued until the 20th of June, 1629, when an event took 

 place, the real causes of which have never been ascertained." 



"The rainy season having set in with unusual violence, Martinez, 

 either desirous to convince the inhabitants of the capital of the 

 utility of his gallery, or fearful, as he himself stated, that the fruits 

 of his labor would be destroyed by the entrance of too great a vo- 

 lume of water, closed the mouth of the tunnel, without communi- 

 cating to any one his intention to do so. The effect was instanta- 

 neous ; and, in one night, the whole town of Mexico was laid 

 under water, with the exception of the great square, and one of the 

 suburbs. In all the other streets the water rose upwards of three 

 feet, and during five years, from 1629 to 1634, canoes formed the 

 only medium of communication between them. The foundations 

 of many of the principal houses were destroyed ; trade was para- 

 lyzed ; the lower classes reduced to the lowest state of misery ; and 

 orders were actually given by the court of Madrid to abandon the 

 town and build a new capital in the elevated plains between 

 Tacuba and Tacubaya, to which the waters of the lakes, even 

 before the conquest, had never been known to extend. 



" The necessity of this measure was obviated by a succession of 

 earthquakes in the dry year of 1634, when the valley was cracked 

 and rent in various directions, and the waters gradually disap- 

 peared ; a miracle for which due credit should be given to the 

 Virgin of Guadalupe, by whose powerful intercession it is said to 

 have been effected. 



"Martinez, who had been thrown into confinement in 1629, was 

 released upon the termination of the evils which his imprudence 

 was said to have occasioned ; and was again placed by a new vice- 

 roy, — the Marques de Cerralvo, — at the head of the works by 

 which similar visitations were to be averted in future. Under his 

 superintendence the great dyke, or Calzada of San Cristoval was 

 put in order, 1 by which the lake of that name is divided from that 

 of Tezcoco. This gigantic work which consists of two distinct 

 masses, the first, one league, and the second, one thousand five 

 hundred varas in length, is ten varas in width or thickness 



1 The Calzada of San Cristoval was originally erected, according to good author- 

 ity, in the year 1605. See Liceo Mexicano, vol. 2, p. 6. 



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