SUMMIT OF TEZCOSINGO. 233 
merits of pottery, Indian arrows, and broken sacrificial knives ; while, 
occasionally, we passed over the ruins of an aqueduct winding round the 
hill. The eminence seems to have been converted, from its base to its 
summit, (a distance of perhaps five hundred feet,) into a pile of those 
terraced gardens, so much admired by every tourist who falls into rap- 
tures among the romantic groves of Isola Bella. 
Our horses seemed to be better accustomed to the dangerous clamber- 
ing among these steeps, than ourselves, and we therefore continued in 
our saddles until we reached a point about fifty feet below the summit, 
where, in a due northerly direction, the rock had been cut into seats along 
a recess leading to a perpendicular wall, which is said to have been cov- 
ered, until recently, with a Toltec Calendar. When the Indians found 
that a place, otherwise so unattractive, was visited by foreigners, they 
immediately imagined their ancestors had concealed treasures behind the 
stone ; as they supposed that gold, and not mere curiosity could have lured 
strangers from a distance to so unsightly a spot. They consequently de- 
stroyed the carved rock in order to penetrate the hill, and there is now not 
a fragment of the ancient sculptui'e I'emaining. In the hole, burrowed 
by the treasure-finders, avo discovered a number of Indians, of both sexes, 
sheltering themselves from the rain ; and as they had a supply of nopals, 
(with which the surrounding rocks are covered,) we were not loth to dis- 
mount, and, forgetting our indignation for the moment — crawled into their 
cavern to enjoy the luscious fruit. 
A ?ew steps upward led us to the summit of Tezcosingo. I found there 
no remains of a temple or edifice ; but as the hill is supposed to have been 
formerly dedicated to the bloody rites of Indian worship, modern piety has 
thought proper to purify the spot by the erection of a cross. And never 
was one built on a more majestic and commanding site. From its foot, 
the entire valley, lake, Tezcoco, Mexico, and lakes far to the north, were 
distinctly visible, and the beauty of the panorama was greatly increased 
by the sudden clearing of the skies, and an outburst of the setting sun. 
Bidding our Indians farewell in their burrow, we descended over massive 
fragments of architecture, to a spot where a path terminates abruptly in a 
bastion-like wall, plunging precipitously down the side of the mountain 
for two hundred feet. Here we found what is called the " Bath of 
MONTEZITMA." 
