cious establishment; breakfasting with uncommon zest after our preparatory ride of seven hours.
The estate attached to the hacienda is one of the most princely and productive in the valley of Mexico. In old times it had belonged, with much valuable land on the same side of the lake, to the Jesuits. Later it came into possession of the Marquis Vibanco, and now appertains to the exiled General Moran. The dwelling house, though spacious, is hardly worthy of the size and construction of the adjoining offices; among which the two troges, or barns, are distinguished for their vast size and massive architecture. The largest, which we rudely measured, forms one immense apartment of seventy yards in length, by twenty-two in breadth. They are calculated to hold the whole of the ample produce of maize and wheat yielded by the estate. The land is rendered extremely productive, by the excellent system of irrigation to which it is subjected. The water is conveyed hither from the mountains to the east, by means of stone conduits. Ward computes the annual income derived from this property at 60,000 dollars.
Leaving the carriage and the mules to find their way to the town of Tezcuco, at the distance of a short league, we got on horseback in the course of the afternoon, to visit some of the objects of interest in the neighbourhood. The frequent occurrence of deep fissures in the surface of the plain, compelled us to make a circuitous route, to gain the ancient but decayed town of Huejutla, now reduced to a mere Indian hamlet, while the large church erected by the Spaniards soon after the conquest, and its singular Aztec ruins, mark it to have been a place of considerable consequence both before and after that period.
The church stands upon a raised platform, from which you descend to a second walled enclosure by a broad flight of steps. This enclosure is covered with sward, and overshadowed by seventeen noble olive trees, which tradition states to have been the first planted by the conquerors in New Spain. Their venerable appearance attests their great age.
