340 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



rendered fecure by ditches which interfered all the roads 

 by which an enemy could approach j but other cities 

 which were not placed in fo advantageous a fituation, 

 had walls and other means of defence. Cortes himfelf 

 gives an exact defcription of the walls of Quauhquechol- 

 lan. 



But it is not neceffary to confume time in accumulating 

 tefti monies and other proofs of the architecture of the 

 Mexicans, while they have left, in the three roads which 

 they formed upon the lake itfelf, and the very ancient 

 aqueduct of Chapoltepec, an immortal monument of 

 their induftry. 



The fame authors who attefl the architectural ikill of 

 the Mexicans, witnefs alfo the ingenuity of their gold- 

 fmiths, their weavers, their gem-cutters, and their arti- 

 ficers of works of feathers. Many Europeans who faw 

 fuch kind of works were aftoniflied at the abilities of the 

 American artifts. Their art in cafting metals was admir- 

 ed by the gold-fmiths of Europe, as many European 

 writers, then living, have faid ; and amongft others the 

 hiftorian Gomara, who had the works in his hands, 

 and heard the opinion of the Sevillian gold-fmiths con- 

 cerning them, who defpaired of ever being able to imi- 

 tate them. When mall we find any one capable of 

 making thofe wonderful works already mentioned by us, 

 in Book VIII. Sect. 51. of this hiftory, and attefted by 

 many writers, namely that, for inflance, of carting a 

 a fl(h, which fliould have its fcales alternately, one of 

 gold and the other of filver ? Cortes fays, in his fecond 

 letter to Charles V. that the images made of gold and 

 feathers were fo well wrought by the Mexicans that no 

 workman of Europe could make any better ; that in re- 

 flect to jewels, he could not comprehend by what in- 



itruments 



