HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



163 



Tate, or garments to cover them, and living in conflant 

 diftrufl: of their neighbours, they led a life as miferable 

 as it was in other places, where they had fupported 

 themfelves folely on the animal and vegetable produce 

 of the lake. But when urged by neceffity, of what ts 

 not human induftry capable ? The greateft want which 

 the Mexicans experienced was that of ground for their 

 habitations, as the little ifland of Tenochtitlan was not 

 fufEcient for all its inhabitants. This they remedied a 

 little by making palifades in thofe places where the wa- 

 ter was flialloweft, which they terraced with flones and 

 turf, uniting to their principal ifland feveral other fmall- 

 er ones at a little diftance. To procure to themfelves 

 afterwards ftone, wood, bread, and every thing ne- 

 ceflary for their habitations, their clothing, and food, 

 they applied themfelves with the utmoft alTiduity to fifli- 

 ing, not only of white fifli, of which we have already 

 fpoken, but alfo of other little filh and infe£ls of the 

 marflies which they made eatable, and to the catching of 

 innumerable kinds of birds which flocked there to feed 

 in the water. By infi:ituting a trafiick with this game in 

 the other places fituated on the borders of the lake, they 

 obtained all they wanted. 



But the gardens floating on the water which they made 

 of the buflies and mud of the lake, the fl:ru61:ure and 

 form of which we fliall elfewhere explain, difcovered the 

 greatefl: exertion of their induftry ; on thefe they fowed 

 maize, pepper, chia, French beans, and gourds. 



Thus the Mexicans paflfed the firft thirteen years, giv- 

 ing as much order and form to their fettlement as pofli- 

 ble, and relieving their diftreflfes by dint of induftry : un- 

 til this period, the whole tribe had continued united, 

 jjotwithftanding the difagreement of the two factions 



which 



