LETTER XXIIl. 
THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF MEXICO. CHAPULTEPEC. TACTJBAYA, AND THE 
MURDER OF MR. EGERTON. ST. ANGEL. THE DESIERTO. 
1 HAVE intimated to you several times in these letters, that it is exceed- 
ingly dangerous to go out of the gates of the city of Mexico alone or 
unarmed. Indeed, a foreigner scarcely ever rides even as far as Tacu- 
baya without his pistols in his holsters and a trusty servant behind him. 
Skirting one of the aqueducts which terminates in the southern part of 
the city, you pass westward over the plain to Chapultepec — the "Hill 
of the Grasshopper." It is an insulated porphyritic rock, rising near the 
former margin of the lake, and is said to have been one of the spots 
designated by the Aztecs, as a place where they tarried on their emigra- 
tion from the north in search of a final resting-place, which was to be 
denoted by " an eagle sitting on a rock and devouring a serpent." 
At the foot of this solitary hill the plain spreads out on every side, in all 
the beauty of extreme cultivation, while a belt of noble cypresses girdles 
its immediate base. One of these trees still bears the name of " Mon- 
tezuma's cypress,"* and there is no doubt, from the remains of the gar- 
dens, groves, tanks and grottoes still visible about this beautiful spot, 
that it was one of the favorite resorts of the monarch and court of 
the Mexican Empire. The tradition is that the Emperor retired from t>e 
sultry city to these pleasant shades, which were filled, in his day, witn 
every luxury that wealth could procure or art devise. It would have 
been difiicult to select a spot better adapted for a royal residence. From 
the top of the modern Palace (now a military school) erected by the 
"Viceroy Galvez, there is a charming prospect over the valley and lakes. 
Tou sweep your eye around a border of gigantic mountains, while at the 
bottom of the hill cluster the dense groves of cypress — the genuine an- 
tiquities of Mexico — old, perhaps already at the period of the conquest. 
Nor is it the least agreeable association with these venerable relics, that 
they are unconnected with any of the bloody rites of religion, but are 
eloquent witnesses of the better portions of Mexican character. 
• It measnres 41 feet in circumference, and 51, over some excrescences. 
