HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



much lefs than the fecond ; and the reft In proportion, 

 fo that upon each body there remained a free fpace or 

 plain which would allow three, or even four men abreaft 

 to walk round the next body. 



The flairs, which were upon the fouth-fide, were 

 made of large well formed ftones, and confifted of a 

 hundred and fourteen fteps, each a foot high. They 

 were not, however, one fmgle flair-cafe continued all 

 the way, as they have been reprefented by the authors 

 of the General Hiftory of Travels, and the Publishers 

 of Cortes's Letters, in Mexico ; but were divided into 

 as many feparate ftair-cafes as there were bodies of the 

 building in the manner (hewn in our plate ; fo that after 

 getting to the top of the firft ftair-cafe, one could not 

 mount the fecond, without going along the firft plain 

 round the fecond ; nor the third, without going along 

 the fecond plain, and fo of the reft. This will be bet- 

 ter underftood by confulting the plate, which is copied 

 from that of the Anonymous Conqueror (Z»), but cor- 

 rected as to the dimenfions, from that author's own de- 

 fcription, and other hiftorians. 



Upon the fifth body was a plain, which we {hall call 

 the upper area, which was about forty-three perches 

 long (c), and thirty-four broad, and was as well paved 

 as the great area below. At the eaftern extremity of 



this 



(b) A copy of the drawing of the temple made by the Anonymous Conque- 

 ror, is to be found in the collection of Jo. Ramufio; and another in Father 

 Kircher's work, entitled, Oedipus JEgyptiacus. 



(r) Sahagun, whofe meafures have been adopted by Torquemada, allows no 

 more than feventy Toledan feet fquare, which is about ten perches, to the up- 

 per area ; but it is impoflible that five hundred Mexican nobles, as Cortes af- 

 ferts, could have flood to fight againft the Spaniards, in fuch a narrow fpace ; 

 efpecially if we believe Bernard Diaz, who fays, that four thoufand Mexicans 

 fortified themjfelves in that temple, and that numbers had got up before the no- 

 bles afcended. 



