is impossible to draw a definite line between the true and the false; nor do I feel it my duty to dogmatize in these matters, but rather to tell the tale as I find it, at the same time laying every shade of evidence before the reader.
The principal palace in the city of Mexico was
an irregular pile of low buildings, enormous in extent,
constructed of huge blocks of tetzontli, a kind of
porous stone common to that country, cemented
with mortar. The arrangement of the buildings was
such that they enclosed three great plazas or public
squares, in one of which a beautiful fountain incessantly
played. Twenty great doors opened on the
squares, and on the streets, and over these was
sculptured in stone the coat of arms of the kings of
Mexico,—an eagle gripping in his talons a jaguar.[1] In the interior were many halls, each of immense size,
and one in particular is said by a writer who accompanied
Cortés, known as the Anonymous Conqueror,
to have been of sufficient extent to contain three thousand
men; while upon the terrace that formed its roof
thirty men on horseback could have gone through the
spear exercise.[2] In addition to these there were more
than one hundred smaller rooms, and the same number
of marble baths, which together with the fountains,
ponds, and basins in the gardens, were supplied with
water from the neighboring hill of Chapultepec.
There were also splendid suites of apartments retained
for the use of the kings of Tezcuco and Tlacopan,
and their attendants, when they visited Mexico,
- ↑ Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. ix. Though it is more than probable that Gomara means the same thing, yet the manner in which he expresses it leaves us in some doubt whether the tiger might not have been standing over the eagle. 'El escudo de armas, que estaua por las puertas de palacio y que traen las vanderas de Motecçuma, y las de sus antecessores, es vna aguila abatida a vn tigre, las manos y vñas puestas como para hazer presa.' Conq. Mex., fol. 108. 'Het Wapen dat boven de Poorte stont, was een Arent die op een Griffioen nederdaelde, met open Clauwen hem ghereet maeckende, om syn Roof te vatten.' West-Indische Spieghel, p. 246.
- ↑ Relatione fatta per vn gentil 'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 309.
