332 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



likewife by wonderful exertions of induftry, created to 

 themfelves new territory for cultivation, by forming 

 thofe floating fields and gardens on the water, which 

 have been fo highly celebrated by all the Spaniards and 

 foreigners, and are (till the admiration of all who fail 

 upon thofe lakes. We have demonftrated that not on- 

 ly all the plants which were neceflary for food, for cloth- 

 ing and medicine, but likewife the flowers and other 

 vegetables which contributed folely to luxury and plea- 

 fure, Were all moft plenteoufly cultivated by them. Cor- 

 tes, in his letters to Charles V. and Bernal Diaz, fpeak 

 with altonifliment of the famous gardens of iztapalapan 

 and Huaxtepec, which they faw ; and they are alfo 

 mentioned by Hernandez, in his Natural Hiftory, who 

 faw thefe gardens forty years after. Cortes in a letter 

 to Charles V. of the 30th of October, 1520, fpeaks 

 thus : " The multitude of inhabitants in thofe countries 

 " is fo great, that there is not a foot of land left uncul- 

 " tivated." It is being very obftinate to refufe faith to 

 the unanimous ieftimony of the Spanifh authors. 



We have fet forth, on the fupport of the fame tefti- 

 mony, the great fkill of the Mexicans in bringing up 

 animals, in which kind of magnificence Montezuma fur- 

 pafled all the kings of the world. The Mexicans could 

 not have bred up fuch an infinite variety of quadru- 

 peds, reptiles, and birds, without having great know- 

 ledge of their natures, their inftinc"t, their habits of 

 life, &c. 



Their architecture is not to be compared with that of 

 the Europeans, but it was certainly greatly fuperior to 

 that of mod of the people of Afia and Africa. Who 

 would form a comparifon between the houfes, palaces, 

 temples, baftions, aqueducts, and roads of the ancient 



Mexicans, 



