present day chiefly noted for the large and noble church which was erected there by Cortez. A little in the rear, the ruins of an ancient Mexican pyramid are discernible, constructed of regular courses of unburnt bricks, six inches in thickness; and hard by, you trace the lines of a Spanish encampment. I do not hazard the opinion, but it might appear by the coincidence, that this was the very position chosen by Cortez for his intrenchment, after the retreat just mentioned, and before he commenced his painful route towards Otumba.
Immediately behind Tacuba and San Joachim, you reach a range of high grounds, which, like the lower portions of the mountains surrounding the valley, are perfectly denuded of the wood which once covered them, and even of soil. They exhibit no vegetation, but scattered bushes of cactus and schinus, except in the vicinity of the great Hacienda Morales, and other farms scattered at intervals on the rising ground. From the extremity of the Alameda, you may easily fall into the causeway to Tacuba, by turning to the left; or yet better, to Chapultepec, by following the Paseo Nuevo, an open road raised a few feet above the level of the surrounding meadows, and used as a public evening drive, in rotation with the Paseo de las Vigas, at the southeastern extremity of the city. But I soon got tired of the stately recreation of the Promenade; and after a few experiments at playing "l'aimable" among its stiff walks and stiffer statues, I constantly turned my horse's head in one or the other direction.
No traveller, ancient or modern, has failed to notice the beauty and singularity of position of Chapultepec—the hill of the grasshopper—at three miles distance from the city. It is an insulated rock of porphyry, springing up upon what was the margin of the lake, and now surrounded on all sides by fields and meadows overspread by luxuriant vegetation. That it was a favourite place of resort of the Aztec monarchs, there is no doubt; and its foot is still clothed with an ancient garden in which
