a scarcity of provisions in the valley, where the fields had been ravaged to some extent before the siege, and since despoiled by army foragers.[1]
A plan was drawn for a Spanish quarter, centring round the square already preëminent with imperial palaces and the leading temple in Anáhuac, once consecrated to Christian worship. This was the aristocratic Tenochtitlan, a name long preserved even in official records under the corrupt form of Temixtitan. It was separated by a wide canal from the Indian quarter, which centred chiefly round Tlatelulco, regarded as plebeian long before the conquest. Only a small part was covered by the plan,[2] beyond which the houses afterward extended in striking irregularity as compared with those in the older quarters. In addition to the three regular causeways two more were added, the support along the aqueduct from Chapultepec being enlarged to a road.[3] The Tlacopan road, or rather Tacuba, as it was henceforth termed, soon became a sort of elongated suburb, owing to the numerous vegetable gardens which sprang up on either side of it. The famous levee which protected the southern front of the city from the waters of Xochimilco Lake, and had served as a resort for traders and promenaders, was strengthened and named San Lázaro.[4]
The quarter was laid out in rectangular blocks, the
- ↑ 'La tercera plaga fué una muy gran hambre luego como fué tomada la ciudad,' is Motolinia's strong description of it, and even the Spaniards were pressed for want of maize. Hist. Ind., i. 17.
- ↑ The limits appear to have been nearly, Calle de la Santísima on the east, San Gerónimo or San Miguel on the south, Santo Domingo on the north, Santa Isabel on the west. Alaman, Disert., ii. 198.
- ↑ Vetancurt writes toward the close of the 17th century: 'Entrase en la Ciudad por seis calsadas, las tres antiguas de Guadalupe á el Norte, de Tacuba al Poniente, y la de S. Anton al Medio dia, y por otras tres q hizieron los Españoles, por la de la Piedad, por la de la Chapultepec, y la de Santiago asia el Poniente.' Trat. Mex. Cepeda, Rel. Mex., i. 3, 4, half a century earlier, gives the Santiago road a length of 5,500 varas and a width of 10 j the San Anton, 7,000 by 10; its Iztapalapan extension 5,200 by 11; the Chapultepec 3.000 by 7; the Tacuba 2,500 by 14. The latter is now known as San Cosme.
- ↑ It was 9,000 varas long, and 6 wide, and had 7 openings, corresponding to so many canals which passed through to the lake. These canals were from 1,000 to 3,800 varas long. Id. See Native Races, ii. 560, et seq., for descri-
