The Borda Garden 
BASIN OF THE SUNKEN SECTION, LOOKING TOWARDS THE BRIDGE AND INCLINED WALK 
gateways, or for the rich tresses of roses and 
other flowering climbers that trail along the 
tops of high enclosing walls. The domestic 
gardening is either charmingly concentrated 
in the patios , or open courts, that are a delight¬ 
ful feature of city houses, or is devoted to the 
embellishment of the enclosed areas attached 
to country houses or suburban dwellings. 
In the suburbs of the City of Mexico 
there are some fine examples of the latter. 
But the most celebrated garden in the country 
is that which Jose de la Borda created for 
himself at a prodigious expense in the little 
city of Cuernavaca. Joseph of Bordeaux, as 
his name would he in English, came to 
Mexico early in the eighteenth century, a 
penniless French boy in search of a fortune. 
Had he come to the English colonies he 
would doubtless have been known as “ Bor¬ 
deaux Joe.” Good luck allied itself with 
native energy; he engaged in mining, made 
some lucky ventures, and at last found 
himself a multimillionaire, in possession of 
one of the greatest individual fortunes that 
ever was accumulated in Mexico. It was 
probably his long and fortunate career that 
kept him from following the inclinations 
common to men of his kind—those that 
prompt a return to the native land to enjoy 
the riches gained. Borda had great mining 
properties in various parts of the country, 
and at each of these centres he built superb 
great churches. Like most other rich men 
in New Spain, he built a palatial house in 
the City of Mexico. Men of wealth in 
Mexico customarily have country homes 
where they spend a considerable portion of 
the year. Many such men have large landed 
interests; great estates that number their 
acres by the thousand, and not infrequently 
by the hundred thousand. When such 
estates are in the tierra cahente or the tierra 
tempi ad a, the hot country or the temperate 
country, they choose the winter months for 
their country sojourn. 1 he capital city is in 
the tierra fria, the cold country. The term 
is but relative; to the Northern sense the 
climate is wonderfully temperate. But the 
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