182 THE FRANCISCANS COMPLETION OF THE DESAGUE. 



throughout, and from three and a half to four varas in height. It 

 is composed entirely of stone, with buttresses of solid masonry on 

 both sides, and three sluices, by which, in any emergency, a com- 

 munication between the lakes can be effected and regulated at the 

 same time. The whole was concluded, like the gallery of Nochis- 

 tongo, in eleven months, although as many years would now be re- 

 quired for such an undertaking. But in those days the sacrifice of 

 life, and particularly of Indian life, in public works, was not re- 

 garded. Many thousands of the natives perished before the desague 

 was completed ; and to their loss, as well as to the hardships en- 

 dured by the survivors, may be ascribed the horror with which the 

 name of Huehuetoca is pronounced by their descendants. 



"It is not our intention to follow the progress of the canal of 

 Huehuetoca through all the various changes which occurred in 

 the plans pursued with respect to it from 1637, when the direction 

 of the work was again taken from Martinez and confided to the 

 Franciscan monks, until 1767, when, under the viceroyalty of the 

 Marques de Croix, the Consulado or corporate body of Mexican 

 merchants, engaged to complete this great national undertaking. 

 The necessity of converting the tunnel of Martinez into an open 

 cut, had long been acknowledged, it having been found impossible 

 to prevent the tunnel from being continually choked up by the 

 sand and rubbish deposited by the water on its passage ; but as 

 the work was only prosecuted with vigor when the danger of an 

 inundation became imminent, and was almost suspended in the dry 

 years, two thousand three hundred and ten varas of the northern 

 gallery remained untouched, after the expiration of one hundred 

 and thirty years when the Consulado was intrusted with the 

 completion of the arduous task. As the old line of the gallery 

 was to be preserved, it became necessary to give the cut which 

 was to be sunk, perpendicularly upon it, an enormous width at 

 the top, in order to prevent the sides from falling in ; and in the 

 more elevated parts, between the mountains of Sincoque and the 

 hill of Nochistongo, for the space of two thousand six hundred 

 and twenty-four feet, the width, across, varies from two hundred 

 and seventy-eight to six hundred and thirty feet, while the perpen- 

 dicular depth is from one hundred and forty-seven to one hundred 

 and ninety-six feet. The whole length of the cut from the sluice 

 called the vertideros to the salto or fall of the river Tula, is sixty- 

 ',even thousand five hundred and thirty- seven feet or twenty-four 

 thousand five hundred and thirty Mexican varas. The highest 

 point of the hill of Nochistongo is that called Boveda Real, and it 



