278 TEZCOCAN SPLENDOR BOSQUE DEL CONTADOR. 



mountains and glens which border the eastern side of Tescocingo, 

 undoubtedly made this recess a favorite resort for the royal person- 

 ages at whose expense these costly works were made. From the 

 surrounding seats, they enjoyed a delicious prospect over the lovely 

 but secluded scenery, while, in the basin, at their feet, were gath- 

 ered the waters of a neighboring spring, which, whilst refreshing 

 them after their promenade on the mountain, gurgled out of its stony 

 channel and fell in a mimic cascade over the precipitous cliff that 

 terminated their path. It was to this shady spot that they no doubt 

 retired in the afternoon, when the sun was hot on the west of the 

 mountain, and here the sovereign and his court, in all probability, 

 enjoyed the repose and privacy which were denied them amid the 

 bustle of the city. Antiquarianism would be greatly assisted in its re- 

 searches and conjectures, if it recollected that the nature of civilized 

 men is the same in all ages, and that it is easier to judge the archi- 

 tectural remains of our ancestors by this standard than by the fanci- 

 ful or classical rules, which they are dramatically disposed to conjure 

 up in order to interpret the past. 



The hill or mountain of Tescocingo is connected with another 

 hill on the east by a tall embankment about two hundred feet high, 

 upon whose level top, — which may be crossed by three persons 

 abreast, on horseback, — are the remains of an ancient aqueduct, 

 built of baked clay, the pipes of which are now as perfect as on the 

 day they were first laid. The water was brought hither by a canal 

 around the hill to which it is connected by the embankment; while, 

 east of this, and uniting the last hill with another elevation, there is 

 a second aqueduct raised on an embankment, which was fed by 

 other aqueducts and canals that formerly conducted the water from 

 the eastern mountains about three leagues distant. 



Such are some of the remains of Tezcocan sumptuousness, in the 

 neighborhood of the ancient capital of this region ; and, together 

 with the ancient grove of cypresses, known as El Bosque del Con- 

 tador, lying across the levels north-west of Tezcoco, may be re- 

 garded as the most remarkable relics of the princes and people of 

 the Tezcocan monarchy. The grove of the Contador is formed by 

 double rows of gigantic cypresses, about five hundred in number, 

 arranged in a square corresponding with the points of the compass 

 and enclosing an area of nearly ten acres. At the north-western 

 point of this quadrangle another double row of lordly cypresses rims 

 westwardly towards a dyke, north of which there is a deep oblong 



